Prayers
(Newspapers report that Greeks fill their churches to
pray for delivery from the new scourge of tourists.)
Shall we ask our special icons
To take away the tourists?
Aghios Ioannis, Panaghia - Agapi mou;
Remove this plague that ravages
Rhodes and Corfu;
Darkens Ionian and Aegean blue,
Pollutes Olympia, Delphi;
Hydrofoils Hydra, Poros, Mykonos ;
Storms the Parthenon again
Upon its sea of stone;
Wake, St Paul upon the Pnyx;
Socrates sipping hemlock
On the Phillopapas;
We can’t cope with this new rage,
Idolators and money-changers
Monsters snorting on new roads,
Threatening subsidence
Beneath the mountains.
We have no more Leanders,
Or Themistocles;
No Spartan heroes:
Icons, you don’t hear us,
You are mute;
Must we turn to the old cruel gods:
Athena, Poseidon, Artemis, Zeus,
Apollo, whom we deserted -
Hear us, Apollo,
You can save us now -
‘deus ex machina’
Page(s) 54
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