Vasilis Polyzos: The Solar Bicycle / floating butterflies

floating butterflies
with a gentle puff of breath


hőr! das Glockenspiel!

others have died after all
we are still alive
and what is more
our old photos have forgotten us
so we are free to write
little ballads
on the retina of the flowers

of course there’s nothing wrong
if you are unable to tell
one Chinese from another
despite your constant travels
through yellow woods
through muddy rice-bowls
or now and then along
the wolf-tracks of Albania in buskins

quid?
quid?
quid?

 now that are past and gone
all venerable trades
e.g. the troubadours
the rhapsodists
the mounted poets?

will the visigoths be summoned
for the parade
along the Data Avenue
under the arches of triumph?

anyway
even for the deceased it has been said
that their hair keeps growing
all their lifetime in grave
with the exception of the judge
who was buried wearing his wig
honoris causa


floating butterflies
a poem from the collection
The Solar Bicycle
(Ηλιακό Ποδήλατο)
© Βασίλης Πολύζος 2003

QUID?
an image by Vasilis Polyzos
2014