What do I do with my body while
she crosses herself, lights holy oil,
kisses icons in the small,
unfinished church she’s led me to
with gestures, undulating speech?
Watch her moves attentively?
Lower my gaze, look away?
We walk downhill past mottled sheep,
a dog she calls a Greek Shepherd.
We’re beyond history. We have no
slot to put each other in. TV is kako,
she says. Symphono, Kyria, I agree.
This is my house. Come for coffee.
Eucharisto. Does she mean now?
Tasting the eucharist in thanks,
I stand here, mute, thirsty.
—by Hilary Sideris
Copyright ©2023, by Hilary Sideris. All Rights Reserved.
Source: https://heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/poetry-by-hilary-sideris1155686
Hilary Sideris’s poems have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, OneArt, Poetry Daily, Right Hand Pointing, Salamander, Sixth Finch, and Verse Daily. She is the author of Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books 2019), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press 2019), and Animals in English, poems after Temple Grandin (Dos Madres Press 2020). Liberty Laundry, her latest collection from Dos Madres, was recommended by Small Press Distribution.
Hilary lives in Brooklyn and works as a professional developer for the CUNY Start Program at The City University of New York.
We hosted Hilary for some time in May 2023 at La Casa Grande in Agios Ioannis, Evia.
We are more than grateful and humbled for being part of her inspiration and eventually her work.