Five Poems by Poems Catherine Strisik

 

With Panagίota

We say Greek. We say church. We say Greek Church. We say Greek School. We say

Sunday School. We say the Father Son and Holy Spirit. We say Byzantine cross, 

18 K. We say Baltimore Street. We say Haverhill, Massachusetts. We say Yiayίa

 and Pappoύs. We say Greek village. Amygdaliés. Trapezίtsa. We say immigrant.

 We say Hellenic. We say Thalassémia. We say Greek dance in Boston. We say 

Greek Community Center. Ahépa. We say Greek boys. We say our grandmothers 

say, Marry a Greek boy. We say féta, psomί, katsiróla, fenékia, dolmάthes, stóma, 

théa, théo. We say our grandmothers say, What, not marrying a Greek boy? 

We say probably not. We say ouch. Our faces. We say crocheted potholders. 

We say knitted slippers. We say embroidered tablecloths. We say kouzίni, foύrnos,

and mousakάs. We say Greek dogmas. Do not cross your legs in church. We say

matriarchal. Spanikópeta. We say shrill and fast language. We say broken Greek.

I speak broken Greek. We say fluent Greek. We say Greek gypsy, Greek Turk, 

Communist Greek, Island Greek, Greek mother, city Greek, village Greek. We 

say Greek Easter. We say grapevine. We say sacrifice. We say lamb. We say 

roasted lamb head on our best china. We say Greek friendship. We say when

 we go to Greece together. We say our grandmothers say, He’d better be a 

doctor then. We say prάsa. We say chórta. The young ones because they are tender.

We say mothers who dance on tables. They say teach your daughters right. 

We know. They say water the tulips blooming at our graves in the spring in 

the Greek section. We sigh, in Greek. Sigh.  We say sister 60 years have passed.

 

 

 And They Saw Me Turn To Hear Them

 

Am I not so deserving of this charm. This champagne and the mare

having once thrown me. As if in that throw to the ground, dirt    stoned   deliberate   my

preparation for life, my linguistic power, my full-bodied meals, and always

with measured bird song outside my afternoon window

 

at the breaking point. My lips red and fleshy.

Winter, Our Greek Way

 

My mother 89 small

hand clutching mine o –

soft tissue of peaked beauty.

 

 

Tanka

Frankincense, too, calmed me,

her middle finger with church oil

forming the sign of the cross

                        on our smooth foreheads

                        one walnut becoming the village tree

                       

 

 Sultana

 

The black scarf

you’ve worn since his death

unravels against your forehead

            this season tobacco leaves crumble

            the small stream dry

 

 

 

an unexpected rise in the throat−

all the vitality of Trapezίtsa

at once fills the plaka

            your blue-ringed eyes that’s how

            you finally recognize mine.

Catherine Strisik, poet, teacher, editor is Taos, New Mexico’s Poet Laureate 2020-2021; recipient of 2020 Taoseña Award as Woman of Impact based on literary contribution; is author of Insectum Gravitis (Main Street Rag 2019; finalist New Mexico/AZ Book Award in Poetry 2020); The Mistress (3: A Taos Press 2016; awarded New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song (Plain View Press 2010, second printing 2016) and  recently completed manuscript And They Saw Me Turn To Hear Them (semi-finalist, Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, 2021). Her poetry is translated into Greek, Persian, and Bulgarian. Strisik is co-founding editor of Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art.

"My desk, most loyal friend thank you. You've been with me on every road I've taken. My scar and my protection." - Marina Tsvetaeva