After Immanuel Mifsud
In this selfie, you are leaning relaxed
on the restaurant table, but exactly in the way
to make your new sunglasses visible with
the logo of a well-known brand on them.
You did not buy them in one of those high-end boutiques
on the Rive Gauche – as a boy, you would walk
past with contempt – they had been manufactured
for a pittance by the skillful fingers of Chinese children.
However, you are not aware of it. Not really.
It might well be just propaganda of the overfed Western
youth. What is more, you are about to travel
to Greece on vacation – why bother with things
out of your control? You are going to swim.
Drink mastika. Walk among the stone remnants
of the cradle of what is also your culture.
Your sunglasses will protect you from
noticing your Mediterranean no longer exists,
having drowned together with Alan Kurdi.
Translated by Andrej Peric