Markela
Kontaratou

The girls and the boys reside on the vast plains.

They’ve been there ever since there was sun, snow and rain.

 

In the winter each night lasts as long as three days.

And the plains become frozen and glassy and pale.

And the girls hug the boys and like that fall asleep.

They don’t speak;

they are mute.

But in silence they’re free.

And the stalactites drop all their tears in the caves.

And the boys and the girls glimpse reflections on them.

Hands and noses and mouths and some torsos and legs;

Which they paint on the walls.

Trembling lines, incomplete.

And the boys hug the girls and like that fall asleep.

They don’t speak.

They are mute.

They just laugh or they weep.

 

In the spring ivory fast turns back into green.

And the plains are all wet, but they’re lustrous and lit.

There is always soft music of birds and of bees.

And the girls name the flowers and all living things,

While the boys hunt down beasts and parade on their skins.

After midnight they gather on the verge of the woods,

Where the foliage drops shadows forlorn and obscure.

And the girls face the boys and together they speak –

of old myths and of creatures that nest in the deep.

Horns and canine nails, wings, headless figures, eyes carmine!

Then the boys hunt down girls and parade on their skins.

 

In the summer the girls wear white dresses and pray.

On the plains that are dry, scorched and stagnant all day.

The cicadas’ song covers their plea for the rain.

And the boys light up fires across all the land,

While the girls impale flies and they wish they’d come back.

 

In the autumn the girls kiss the boys goodbye.

For the boys are all dead – perished all in one night.

Hence each girl digs a hole and they put them inside;

And they lay there beside them in perfect distress.

They can’t pray, for the gods have abandoned the plains.

And the bronze falling leaves cover them soon enough;

They forget how to speak;

They are mute;

Paralyzed.

 

The boys and the girls reside on the vast plains.

They’ll be there for as long there is sun, snow and rain.