Social Waste

Your Babylon and your Bagdad
Two pins on your map
And praised Beirut,
Carthage, Damascus
They all carry the scent of spices
And constantly remind me of something
And when the ships sail
They berth in Marseille
And it’s Maria from Sparta
It’s Orestis from Volos
From Phoenicia it’s Astarte
And Barcelona of Manolo
It’s also literature
some songs and books
this dizziness from alcohol
and cities are different there/then.

Me, I imagine the cities as people
Looking at me with their sad eyes
And in their bodies’ sacred lands
Little old moments of mine survive
Me, I imagine the cities as people
Who know my secrets and all I hide
They blink at me and with their manners being alike
They remind me of beloved people of mine.

In markets and ports
Around the train stations
Where scallies hang around
And the moons have sorrows
That’s where I seek people
In all the lands I have loved
Anvers, Liverpool, Lisbon
Secretly, at night, the cranes
Load the century on the ships
And it’ll show up anytime soon
Piraeus, Hamburg, Barcelona
They gather wood and excuses
In a feast that’s about to end
To burn in the fires
The absurdity of the world
For a tomorrow that’ll be ours, my light.

Me, I imagine the cities as people
Looking at me with their sad eyes
And in their bodies’ sacred lands
Little old moments of mine survive
Me, I imagine the cities as people
Who know my secrets and all I hide
They blink at me and with their manners being alike
They remind me of beloved people of mine.