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POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR

Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020

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Zoe Karathanasi 

Paris, France

 

Zoe Karathanasi is originally from Greece but now lives in Paris, France. She has an MA in Poetry with distinction from the Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in various online and print publications, such as Ink Sweat and TearsThe Interpreter’s HouseTears in the Fence and Under the Radar. She is working towards a first collection.

 

Poem completed 2nd August 2020

To My Hometown in Lockdown

 

I always loved getting there by car,   

having traversed most of the country,                                                        

and home started when I crossed

the first settlements built on the river’s estuary,

the Roman stations of Via Egnatia, 

the sugar and tomato factories, now closed,

with their stench of rotting carcass,

the hospital-white tobacco plant,

where my kin and kith have worked.

I drove past roadkill, oftentimes a fox, 

its tail like a burning torch, 

and in the yellow light I saw

those dim but much-loved faces

among the corn stalks.

 

And for the last eight miles or so,

before entering my hometown

through a maze of narrow, overbuilt streets,

I’d gaze at the Rhodope mountains

now held in the same fixed distance

like a mirage.