May 2015
I am an Associate Professor of English at Erie Community College North in Buffalo, N.Y. I have 5 books, 2 chapbooks, and 1 CD of poetry. I am married to Maria Sebastian, a well-known singer/songwriter, and we perform our poetry and music together at many venues in the WNY area. For more information please visit my website: www.perrynicholas.com
Authors Note: Two summers ago I visited Greece again for the first time in 30 years, and that was when I wrote this poem.
Authors Note: Two summers ago I visited Greece again for the first time in 30 years, and that was when I wrote this poem.
Hotel Filoxenia
The hotelkeeper, Marika,
does everything she can to make
this place what its name suggests:
friend to strangers.
I'm an odd Odysseus
dragging a suitcase up
a hundred stairs, huffing,
embarrassed I'm still searching at my age.
I'd just as soon hole up in my cabin
than fight my way along cobblestone paths
with half the heart I had
when I played soccer here as a boy.
I hesitate to hold onto Marika's arm
since men don't touch married women in Greece,
but she senses I am struggling,
takes my elbow anyway, stares straight ahead.
We don't need to say anything—for this final leg,
she's a silent figurehead guiding her sailor home.
does everything she can to make
this place what its name suggests:
friend to strangers.
I'm an odd Odysseus
dragging a suitcase up
a hundred stairs, huffing,
embarrassed I'm still searching at my age.
I'd just as soon hole up in my cabin
than fight my way along cobblestone paths
with half the heart I had
when I played soccer here as a boy.
I hesitate to hold onto Marika's arm
since men don't touch married women in Greece,
but she senses I am struggling,
takes my elbow anyway, stares straight ahead.
We don't need to say anything—for this final leg,
she's a silent figurehead guiding her sailor home.
©2015 Perry S. Nicholas