How imprudent to die
depersonalized
without hanging up the receiver
on a faith gone dead
What impudence to wish
to deify
the holy image of love
as conceived in one’s youth
How important to keep turning
a false face
to the revival tent
where one shuts in one’s disgust
What shamelessness unveiling
Solstittally
the tilt of the astrolable
to the sailors of crazy seas
But impossible forestalling
upon the stroke of “if”
life from repeating the pattern
of stumbling along toward an impasse
the way an illusion fades.
–Translated from Greek by Agnes Sotiracopoulou-Skina and Ann Rivers.