Still Life with No Background

In his last days, Parthenis was cared for
in the Hospital of the Annunciation. Unofficially
we accompanied the funeral procession
one day in July of ’67.
He lived in a little ochre house on the Citadel.
Whenever we passed it, our mom would say,
“That’s Parthenis’ house!”
We learned about him in school.
Mrs. Katina Pappa took us to the Zappeion,
to the First Panhellenic Art Exhibition,
so we could see the Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos,
a painting almost four-meters tall and just as wide,
sold to the National Bank for 6 million drachs.
—— 6 million drachs for a framed piece of canvas?
—— We don’t say “framed canvas,” we say “painting.”
—— 6 million drachs can get an apartment building
on Patission & Spartis if you win
the State Lottery, like that lawyer Iobre.
—— And what’s an apartment building?
Worthless walls.

ξ

Liana Sakelliou has published eighteen books of poetry and criticism as well as translations of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, H. D., Denise Levertov, and Gary Snyder. Her own poems have been translated from Greek into several languages and have been published in a number of anthologies and international journals. She teaches American literature, specializing in contemporary poetry and creative writing, in the Department of English Language and Literature of the University of Athens  The recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Department of Hellenic Studies of Princeton University, the University of Coimbra (Portugal), and the British Council, Ms. Sakelliou is a member of the Greek Writers’ Association and a short story judge in the European Union Prize for Literature. Her latest book, Όπου φυσά γλυκά η αύρα (Wherever the Sweet Breeze Blows), was a finalist for this year’s Greek National Poetry Award.

Born in Nevada and raised in California, Don Schofield has been living in Greece since 1980. Fluent in Greek, a citizen of both his homeland and his adopted country, he has published several poetry collections, the most recent of which are The Flow of Wonder (Kelsay Books, 2018) and In Lands Imagination Favors (Dos Madres Press, 2014), as well as an anthology of American poets in Greece (Kindled Terraces, Truman State University Press, 2004), and translations of several contemporary Greek poets. He is a recipient of the 2005 Allen Ginsberg Award (US), the 2010 John D. Criticos Prize (UK), and a Stanley J. Seeger Writer-in-Residence fellowship at Princeton University. His first book, Approximately Paradise (University Press of Florida, 2002) was a finalist for the Walt Whitman Award, and his translations have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Greek National Translation Award. Currently, he lives in both Thessaloniki and Athens.