Daily unwanted meetings
On the underground train
His black brush of a moustache glistening
(Obviously dyed).
He’d told me
Was usually confined in a room
On his feet all day
Trimming and sculpting hair like clay.
Busy complaining, not listening
His conversation always the same:
“How’s your eldest?”
I’d already told him I had no children.
How many times?
Then he disappeared.
I never saw him again.
I felt empty.
Could he have died?
Years passed
And on my way to work
Always I searched for him.

 

Pavlos.

Pavlos
Simple fisherman
From rocky Vrachos
Daydreamed all his days away
Blind to happenings in the world.

‘Touched by spirits,’ neighbours said.

Netted young by a fisherman-father
Drowned in wild waters
Pavlos mended tears
Until black-dressed mother, hair coiled in kouroukla, allowed him to sea
Forced by poverty to choose this watery Tarsus-road.

The laments of sea-birds.

Single-handed fished Barboun
Foraging further into the Mediterranean Sea
Depending on candle-lit lanterns to mesmerise fish.
Most times he drifted
Thinking of Panayiota, her of the wonderful lips.

A sudden storm
Caught him unaware.
Dashed and spun his small boat uncontrollably.

The boat was foundering.

Pavlos, head bowed
As if expecting this
Saw sunlight breaking clouds
Dazzling bright
Spotlighting the rocks where he was born
The towering rocks of Vrachos.

He could see clearly
His welcoming mother in her warm, dry house
Until the cries of sea-birds.

---

George Tardios was born in London of Greek Cypriot parentage. Poems in six ‘PEN/Arts Council anthologies’ published by Hutchinson and several other publications. Two collections of poems BullSong and Buttoned-Up Shapes. Director of Totleigh Barton, the Arvon Foundation’s first residential creative writing centre in Devon. ‘Poets in Schools’ scheme and tutored creative writing courses for Arvon Foundation. Organised first ‘National Poetry Competition’ for the Poetry Society/BBC TV at Earl’s Court and for Arvon Foundation/Observer. Judged television’s BBC2 ‘South Bank Show’ Poetry Competition. Led an expedition in Tanzania retracing, on foot, H.M. Stanley’s 1871 journey in his search for Dr David Livingstone. The trek took two years and twelve days to complete. George Tardios has written an account of the journey, Lay down your heart.