THE DOGS OF ATHENS

 

More than a city

a cluster of cities stretch

onwards through space,

one sprawling into the next,

so many areas

I've never set foot in

and west of the electric line's

a foreign country;

you see the names of neighbourhoods

on yellow buses passing

this evening square

where, instead of Nokia,

the street dogs are connected

by a different network

and as the night descends

some distant hound pipes up

then others howl back.

They roam around

in crazy, noisy packs

these canine delinquents

hysterical and after blood,

tear pieces from clothes.

It's how my battered old guitar

became a weapon

that still bears a mark.

 

Published in Stepaway Magazine, October 2018.