Reproduction of the “Ladies in Blue” fresco, ca 1525-1450 B.C. Completed by É. Gilliéron in the early 20th century and based on fragments of frescos found in Knossos, an archaeological site on Crete. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I am soft with healing after
I am luxuriant with good fortune after
I am cloaked by lady beetles a scent of salted olive, my nature after
all means spacious means rhododendron and a pretty mouth.
If I give the impression of canopied with black spots after
my sorrow believe me when I say I am in pursuit of myself and a kiss and might after
I be a ridge on Mount Ida might local winegrowers and cicadas might my hollow after
deep between my thighs be my greeting braced ̶
There’s femininity a softening
I’d forgotten.
I’d cherish the softening
Holy is the body
its roundness the flesh
its brine a sweet
secret at age 58
a shuttered
body a cherished resumé.
There’s so much song even in heartache and my heart the female body after
bird melody my simple request after
the seeded bread I’d bought at the base of Lasithi flavored with orange rind.
I am a Greek woman’s body I was told in the marketplace after
buying a potato and sea bream
the morning planes flew overhead celebrating Saint Minas when two vendors
said you are one of us you look like us the earthy
Polite. Greek.
Fluid.
And the lady beetles they mean I am composed of a million single cries.