Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Poli...

Noon

Listen to the original, in Greek:

a row of cypresses towered over the road
we knelt at the water’s source
drank its cleanness
plane trees shaded the ground, shaded
the brown-on-brown tufts, wool from shearing
residue of hands on the bodies of animals
in Easter the ditchwater purples
while in the square, huddled together, awaiting
sacrifice the chosen offering
bleats
flesh
prey for humans
shared with wine
wine blood, wine bread
dirt.
“A soul dressed in a body,” Empedocles says
earth surrounding the mortal
earth surrounding the death-susceptible
earth surrounding the already gone.