AFTER LOVE

The day was trying to bear her weight
any moment she’d break in two
as soon as I saw her I took off my jacket
to help her —
‘Don’t be afraid,’ I tell her, ‘trust me
the other time I cut my fingers
but I saved you at the last moment.
Now at worst we’ll turn into a poem
or dust’

(Translated by Simon Darragh, Agenda, Greek poetry –new voices and Ancient Echoes, guest editor: David Connolly, vol.36 Nos. 3-4, spring 1999)