City of Hermes

Perhaps our paths will coincide
on Syros, in the port of Hermes,
sailing in on morning's tide
or in a cloud of sunset fire;
perhaps we shall climb steep,
stepped streets, where captains' mansions
flaunt their pride in elegant facades
of yesteryear, and hallways still reveal
elaborately-painted ceilings,
orchards burgeoning on walls,
fountains, alcoves, peacocks preening,
while the winds lay siege with cries
of countless island women,
generations of sea-widows, keening.

You may glimpse Ermoupolis
through spindrift, blue cupolas gleaming,
shrines of east and west crowning
twin summits, like two helmet shells.
Ascending labyrinthine lanes
you are inside a nautilus, a spiral
lined with nacre by the moon,
reduced by sun to bone...

If you should find a balcony
with vistas of the violet sea,
rest there while you reflect on Hermes,
who first brought you news of me…



 
for V, in gratitude, for everything...