Reprisals

"You'll find that many of your compatriots have already bought property
in the Mani; in some villages, the Germans outnumber the Greeks 3 to 1."
--1995 real estate brochure

1. 1941

Occupying forces
Emaciated forms
Yellowed sheets
Worthless paper.

2.

Back to the wall
Their faces become
Muzzled abstractions of anthems
Circumventing circular
Definitions

Of executions.

3.

Circle of martyrs'
Eyelids undying
Blank distraction
Allocating slots for headstones
Grounds a lime foundation.

4.

Quarry of white

Washed marble
Statues

Of limitation.

5. vein of ignorance

Where does time run to
When it runs out?

6.

The Germans picked up
The first men they came across
And when they had gathered
Enough to fill the ratio,
Shot them.

The ratio was thirty Greeks
For every German soldier killed
By the Underground.

7. Initial Skirmish, The Deep Mani, 1961

Barren

Black-scarved hags
Captured

By Leicas.

8. 2001

(overheard in passing)

". . .you do exaggerate, my dear. One mustn't forget
The Germans have always respected the traditional

Architecture of our country."