Athens
18/10/11
Attenuated spires of cypress,
spiky octopus of aloes,
cyclamen the earth
hoards for the autumn,
precious golden crocus;
old woman who tends St George's,
stringing beans contentedly;
friendly tortoise, ambling
to meet me on the dusty crest;
cicadas chanting their vibrato
to the noonday sun,
as for millennia their kind has done;
the streets leading to Syntagma
choked with banners, protesters;
graffiti on a wall in Ambelokipi:
'silence is violence'.