LONG LISTED FOR THE 2023 GRIFFIN POETRY AWARDS
Exaggerations
Then the chandelier crushed down with a bang, the floor
cracked and the primeval crime was revealed, great words,
you’d say, but what else we’re left with?
Like all heroes I met the piano tuner at the stairway or
the clock maker “no one is upstairs”, I said and then a bit
quieter “give me another chance”
I recognized my killer in all the faces or I felt the danger
in front of one word; yet I survived like the blind they sent
away but with a song that gave me its hand on the road
or if I stood magnanimously it was because I was
in a hurry and one wastes less when one forgives like
those led in the kitchen to eat and after they finish they
wipe their plate clean, as if erasing their last marks and
there were a myriad of stars up on the sky so I didn’t
know where to go.
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 