WAR HERO
GEORGIOS AMPATZIDIS
You have probably seen me in a nightmare that was not yours,
I am a bad moment, an adverse wind,
A cracked tombstone, three loud volley shots,
An unsuccessful erection,
I am all the ones you loved but none of them,
I am all the ones you lost but none of them,
I often meet dead people that look like me,
All dead people look like me,
The ones who still combat,
They also look like me,
Even though they do not know they are already dead,
I smell gunpowder and mustard,
Pieces of flesh and blood drip off me,
Which are not mine,
The taste of mud has stuck on my jaws,
Which have no voice,
They just whistle when wind passes through my skull,
I cannot hear you,
Since your talk ends in “fire at will”,
And I cannot understand how it begins,
I am poems, rhyming verses,
I am songs of a children’s chorus,
I am bad news, a contagious disease,
I am an unreached orgasm.
_______________________________________
Dr. Georgios Ampatzidis is a biologist with a PhD in educational sciences — who writes poetry and short prose in Greek and English. He works at the University of Patras library and teaches at the University of Thessaly.