Skorda's Seaside Taverna: run, little lambie, run!

Skopelos and Virgin

-by Skorda

Swallow that campari moon
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.

Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.

The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.

Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.

Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008

Friday, April 25, 2008

run, little lambie, run!

Actually, this adorable lamb is in no danger of becoming anyone's Easter feast. For one thing, he is too old now, not a little lamb anymore. He's a tough old boy! Last I heard, he was a studly companion to the loveliest lady lambs on the island. His name is Charisteas, after football striker, # 9 on the Greek team. Yianni got him after he was the rejected by his mother, the newborn had to be nursed for awhile, one of my favorite jobs. No, not that way! He had milk in an Olympic beer bottle with a rubber nipple. I just loved this lambie baby. But when his teeth came out and he was biting through the nipples then he was turned into pasture to fend for himself with the others.