Passengers by Michael Crummey

Author:Michael Crummey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2022-07-06T18:47:17+00:00

THE DARK WOODS

There's only one tune I can play on the accordion,

and even that is a remake of history.

— Lidija Dimkovska

VIA HEATHROW

Midpoint of the day-long flight

from an island lately split

between Turks and Greeks

though half the civilized ancients

laid claim to Cyprus as province

or colony or protectorate

at their respective peaks,

each translucent layer

of that halved onion

marked by serial occupation

suggesting the cobbled streets

belong to no one in particular

and I picked up its sour sense

of vertigo like an infection,

a niggling, low-grade fever

that shadowed the visit

and follows at my heels

through Heathrow's expanse

like a last-minute souvenir

stuffed into a carry-on.

Hours of the terminal ring-dance

between connections, pacing aisles

of faux pubs and infernally lit

outlets in the duty-free before

landing among these exiles

in an open-air enclosure,

each wan shade propping a cigarette

and staring blankly into the distance

as if they'd left their hearts behind

or already sent them on ahead.

In the middle of the journey

I came to myself in an alien wood,

in a village that seemed long abandoned,

though lines of smoke ascend

from each grey chimney.

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