Nerophidia
Nikos apologizes for the clouds.
He says sheep might disturb my sleep.
Two hours from Athens, on Evia,
there will be small black snakes
called nerophidia, who love water,
nero in Greek, but they won’t bite.
A bee might fly into the house.
We cross Chalkida bridge. Red
rubber strips flap from the struts.
That’s not an accident – bungy
jumpers. The weather’s strange
as usual, chilly in May.
Because I am American, Nikos
offers to turn the AC on.
—by Hilary Sideris
Copyright ©2023, by Hilary Sideris. All Rights Reserved.
Source: https://spinozablue.com/hilary-sideris-new-poems/
Hilary Sideris is the author of Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books 2019), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press 2019), Animals in English (Dos Madres Press 2020), and Liberty Laundry (Dos Madres Press 2022.)
She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
She spent most of May at La Casa Grande, a writers’ retreat in Evia, Greece.
We hosted Hilary for some time in May 2023 at La Casa Grande in Agios Ioannis, Evia.
We are more than grateful and humbled for being part of her inspiration and eventually her work.