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."

Site

the
white

moss-
covered
wall

spotted

with
red

poppies
and

what
we
gather
are

bullet
holes.


(First published in the anthology How The Net Is Gripped: a selection of contemporary American poetry, edited by Rupert Loydell and David Miller, Stride, UK, 1992.)

"Definitely Not Lemmings" Number Eight

My thanks to poet Allen Braden for joining Definitely Not Lemmings; you can find out more about Allen here, and also read one of his many very fine poems.

Mythos

As long as you wish
I continue,

You have to go back.

(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #2, Winter 2001/2002)

Lustily

from the dingy
balcony

the housewife's
crisp

white under
pants

and sheets
applaud

accordingly.

(from The Intricate Evasions of As)