city tale

a’

please,
listen to me.
she didn’t come by.
she should’ve come by!

I’m telling you, every day,
ok, every working day,
for the last 4 years,
she came by this spot,
between 9:30 and 9:35 am,
probably heading for work,
I don’t know.

it was the highlight of my day,
seeing her face,
sometimes happy,
sometimes frustrated,
most times sleepy,
every single time: beautiful.

it’s been 4 days now,
that she didn’t come by,
and I’m telling you,
something’s wrong.
someone needs to investigate this.
please.
listen.
look for her,
before it’s too late.


b’

weekly news report:
a strange malfunction caused a serious traffic jam
in the corner of Kifissias and Alexandras avenues.
a traffic light would continuously flash red
without switching.

policemen were dispatched to guide the traffic,
while technicians worked on the traffic light all week,
unable to locate the malfunction.

in the end,
on Friday evening,
the traffic light stopped working altogether.
it will soon be replaced with a new one.

one of the locals approached our camera crew,
insisting that the traffic light
was trying to tell us something.
but, he also insisted
that the lizardmen are coming,
soon, to conquer the world.
so, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
(cue laugh track)

moving on to other news…


c’

three days later,
no one was prepared,
when the lizardmen actually came.

______

city tale by Dimitrios Kokkinos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

απόδραση

αν στο ζήταγα, θα ρχόσουνα,
τρεις μέρες μαζί μου
στο νησί;

τρεις μέρες, δυο νύχτες.
τόσο θα χρειαζόμασταν,
τόσο θα αντέχαμε.

η πρώτη μέρα
για να γνωριστούμε.
η δεύτερη
για να ερωτευτούμε.
κ η τρίτη, φυσικά,
για ν αποχωριστούμε.

κ οι νύχτες;
δροσερά διαλείμματα,
για ν αγναντεύουμε τ αστέρια.

προλαβαίνεις,
σκέψου το.
δε στο χω ζητήσει ακόμα.

______

απόδραση by Dimitrios Kokkinos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

beat

it was so unfair
that the first time I heard you
was meant to be the last.

it all started
with a small chest pain
- nothing to worry about.
but, better to go get myself checked.
just to be sure.

then, some tests didn’t look so good.
so the doctor decided
on the ultrasound.
just standard procedure
- nothing to worry about.

I could see it
in the doctor’s eyes,
and I could hear it
in your struggle,
that there was something
to worry about.

as I was listening to your flutter,
tears started welling up,
and I was ashamed.
I didn’t want her
to see me cry.

but, I wasn’t crying for me.
I made my choices:
my choice in diet,
my choice in workout,
my choice in smoking habits.
I made my choices
and I regret none of them
- not for a second.

no, I cried listening to you,
fighting a lost cause
to the very end.
not for a moment did you stop trying.
not for a moment did you stop hoping.
I could hear it both.
the effort and the hope
for a better day.

so, this letter is to you,
my dear heart.
I want you to know
I don’t blame you.
I know you tried your very best.

Yours
truly

______

beat by Dimitrios Kokkinos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License