Spinalonga: A Postcard

December, 2021

I won’t wish that you were here, friend,
where a plague chokes us with all its tentacles.

Even the rats stay locked in their favorite sewer.
They said we could sneak out once the air was clear,

but the breaths we steal are impossible to hold;
the salty air in the marina is foggy with our cough.

I have trouble breathing past the walls, the TV, the laptop.
I panic every time the innocent breeze knocks at my window.

Frenzied neighbors are preaching nonsense in the streets;
homesickness feeds on my blood like a bat, thanks to them.

Each conversation with the furniture makes me more numb.
The blanket arrests me on my bed, locking me down.

Please, deliver my hopeless prayers to the skies.
I’ll be here creeping along the floor, laughing at my ruins.

Anastasia-Angeliki Karypidou is in the final year of her undergraduate studies at the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her research interests focus on English Literature and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present. Her poetry is inspired by feminist critique and gender studies but it also tries to shed light on her personal experiences in moments of contemporary history, offering her own critical perspective.