<<---< Thessalonike >--->>

        Thessalonike

                   I

Those who fail to answer 

Thessalonike's timeless query

She reels and jerks and drops

Depthfully down undead

With her cold and stony stares.

Alone the mermaid asks away

To away the circling hours

As in unfurled beauty

She cleaves the waves

And rules her bitter seas.

Who save Alexander dare to ask

"How fare you, fair maid?"

Would she herself dare to ask?

Alone to him she would answer--

              
                  II

These plebeian styles--

This unwound world,
So--au currant--
So deep its lack,
Brother, of mystery;
Nothing does it offer,
But such a life
I'd need contrive--
Here, at sea, forever
I hold the better part of
Earth's full realm, and
Unbound fully, save to ask,
How fares Alexander?
Is that too much, I ask?

Inspired by Gwendolyn MacEwen

and Dedicated to Karen Lyn Keeperman

Happy Birthday KLK