Greece

Beyond the dark-peaked mountains
Through vine-infested valleys
Under volcanic rock, shaped like eastern ovens,
Where you place your hands to bake
Inside the Jacuzzis of waterfalls
On serrated footpath edges dug
By shepherds in fits of inspiration

In the clear waters of the Aegean
In the turbid thoughts of Athenian girls
In Homeric lines yet to be found
In father Yánaros' fist-shaking against God
(As if God was an unruly younger brother*)
In the hand wave marking excellence
In the finger proclaiming doom

There, there you will find me
And when we meet
The giant edifice you spent a life time
Creating
By piling one useless stone
Upon another
Your magnificently useless Wall of China
Will crack and thunder as it crumbles.

Hassan Abdulrazzak

* Father Yánaros is the hero of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel The Fratricides, set during the Greek civil war.

If you've any comments on this poem, Hassan Abdulrazzak would be pleased to hear from you.