POEM BY NANOS VALAORITIS
INSIDE EACH OTHER
They all change, become one another
wood turns into stone, trees turn into clouds
women become men leaves become sea
the feathers water-wells the eyes winds
the drawers metals the flowers mind
writing and letters become
illiterate, the beautiful turns ugly
the male becomes neutral the secretive obvious
hope turns blind like wealth
they all become telescopes, then
there isn’t anything to happen or it won’t
each is inside the other
stones and rivers run through his fingers
words turn into tulips
his love becomes a cistern, a table
the chair settles in his right eye
through the window you see only one orchard
cemetery of leaves the marketplace is virgin
and the dew of the dusk nothing but wrong turn of the steering
a needle stretches its thread until it brakes
a leg chews its chain, a kite turns
into a dog and bites whoever goes by
an orphan child becomes the mother of another
a title becomes destitute and gets married
whatever exists is alive, the metals are in the earth
stones in the soil, proof that they wilt
if you uproot them the world turns horrible
lends and borrows, changes color
you don’t call it anymore, it exists as it’s named
monster, turtle, divan, couch, thigh, stove
and blonde hair around a woman’s mound.
Hellenic Canadian Literature 