- Jun 30, 2022

Oscillations — Nafsika Stefanidou

Nobody can predict us —

not the weather forecast, nor the space agency —

our life is an abstract cycle of unfamiliar events

a dive to the unknown

a walk of conjecture

struggling

and as only a coward could deny,

loving

and since we landed on the same side of this planet

above the incoherent magnetic fields

I should keep this moment against the vanity of eternity

but something primitive

stops me from freeing the shutter

this time, using technology to capture a moment

feels like cheating during a game

( and one afternoon when I was six

and had the pieces of Monopoly thrown at me

instead of having lunch

I took a vow to never cheat again )

changed my mind

cosmogony, ground zero

gathered my scattered concentration

so that I can imprint with my eyes

without cheating this time

the complexity of your outline

the colours that you carry

and all those that you hide

the curious eyes

wandering in a universe of synthetic material,

in peace after escaping the Erinyes

projecting a tenderness that makes me dizzy

whatever doesn’t get written down loses the weight of its being

so I’ll confess to you through whispers against the wind

that I never liked Kavvadias¹

and now I’ll get lost in time

exactly as I came in

releasing the oscillations of our axes

to continue their own way

until we meet again on another crumpled equinox

¹ Nikos Kavvadias was a 20th century Greek poet, writer and sailor by profession. His poetry is dearly loved in Greece, even though he got acknowledged after his death. His poems have been set to music by various composers and musicians, disseminating them through generations.