“We vipers” (Εμείς οι όχεντρες): a poem by Pantelis Michanikos

Tags

πραξικόπημα, πολιτική βία, Κυπριακό, Κυπριακή Λογοτεχνία, Κύπρος 1963, Κύπρος 1974, Μακάριος, Παντελής Μηχανικός, διακοινοτικές συγκρούσεις, κυπριακό πρόβλημα, κυπριακή ποίηση

WE VIPERS

———————————————

We vipers
each have a pair of venomous fangs.

When we decided at last
to create a community of men
we decreed that each would remove,
discard,
their two fangs.

Time passed
in shakedowns and readjustments
but something wasn’t right.

We discovered that each viper
now had 
three, or even four, venomous fangs.

The rest
those whose fangs had been stolen
were gone.

I told the old buddy,
next time, should we do it again,
he must take the fangs himself
and make them disappear, fail-safe. 
No matter if they call him an enemy of the nation, a chiliast, 
or any other abominable name,
the vipers.

• 

  Από τη συλλογή Κατάθεση (1975)

•