PIREUS, poetry

On the horizon
I see the boats
Centering in the light
Before darkness
Illuminates the night.
As knowledge of blind people
Goes with the wind
And the touch of the grass
So often forgotten
By ancient warriors like Achilles,
Says Homer
For war and fighting
Makes men blind
But blindness of another kind
Close to the rubbish heaps
Of history.

As gentle the landscape appears
The ancient thought and wisdom
Speaks of times
When men did not listen
But ran the ships to the ground
Even though they had found
Once a long time ago
There the protection they needed
Against burning arrows.
It was the Oracle of Delphi
that saved the citizens of Athens
And yet at first they did not go willingly
For the felt to leave the city behind
Was but an act of betrayal
For which they stoned to death
The wives and children
Of the leaders who had decided
To accept that interpretation
To be safe behind wooden boards
Meant to be on ships
And not at home
So as to escape the burning arrows
And Marx added to this story
The further going thought,
Indeed the city was destroyed by the Persians
But not the memories of the people
By which they rebuild the city
And helped it achieve
Something standing out in time,
So then Pireus is that close to Athens
As is wisdom of survival
To knowing what to see and to interpret
In time to listen to words of wisdom.

Hatto Fischer 6.1.2007