translated by Yannis Goumas

Each time the sense of presence
in a nameless room attempts to capture
sensuality in a split second
there looms the harrowing sight of Perama alone
as children had seen it that Sunday
morning at seven o'clock when the photographer
was taking photos of Nero's and Alcibiades' mother
outside the taverns with gramophones and as singer hair parted in
the middle
set against Salamis, slips and boats rotting in the waters.

  Book 1 (1973), from the cycle Negatives of Idols