A Short History of Crete
Prelude:

The stark white church stands by the wine dark sea,
The shadows of the gods stalk wantonly;
Secret whispers from a secret past,
A battered standard on an ancient mast.
Our history hangs over us mere hostages to time;
Tradition's nothing but a bag of olives packed in brine.

I

This was no crystal ball,
No clarion call to future glory!
A simple mirror smashed to fragments in King Minos' time.
Can I rebuild it?
- Find that final image on the screen?
Piece by piece, splinter by splinter
A mosaic takes shape beneath my fingers:
The sun glints back from half-formed images:
- Now bull, now man;
The tinkle of the pieces distant bells,
The sound of goat's hooves on a stoney path.
It is a language only partly understood
- A sudden phrase you recognise is like a light
That slants askew through stained glass windows
Then is gone to leave the mystery anew!

II

Start with the corners;
Bull's blood burned on blazing stones;
and Turkish Pashas favouring pale boys;
Torn parachutes - strange blossoms in our trees;
Burned villages and secret hideaways;
Green grass in cemetries for foreign dead.

III

The centre spins around a small boy,
Beaten till he bleeds but silent still;
An old man weeping
As his ancient wife bends cracking back
To wash his feet;
Dry bones becoming drier;
Silences that seem to last a lifetime;
Weary years you count out
By the cycle of the olive tree.

IV

A dusty square;
A kafenion needing paint;
Old men who lean on canes,
Drink water; play their komboloi;
Sun slanting slowly westward,
Sinking like a stone that falls into a silent space
Beneath a shimmering sky.

V

Scratched at the bottom of the glass:
(Is it imagination?)
I make out the jagged letters with a sigh:
"Ti kanoume?" - "What can we do?"

Envoi

There is no place within this fantasy
For tourists; discos, for a life that money rules!
I see myself again, flat on my back upon a rock;
I watch the sky, hear breakers beating on the shore!
Now you must watch that sky for me;
Remember it for me, just as it was before.


Morgal

 

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Poems copyright Morgal. Page put together by and copyright of Yobunny, 2000. Updated 2006