Bent over, carrying
The slate-grey

Sky with me
As I descend

The winding steps slowly
Into the garden,

I cannot pretend
It’s been easy

From beginning to end,
Nor can I not

But hesitate at the last
Step and look back on

To where the house,
Smothered

In a sea of jasmine,
Floats ambivalent,

As if hewn out
Of clear blocks

Of diaphanous air.

Born in Greece, Vassillis Zambaras returned to the boondocks of the southern Peloponnese after 25 years in the USA; books of poetry: Sentences (Querencia, 1976), Aural (Singing Horse, 1984), In Credible Evidence, (Longhouse, 2010). Anthologized in How the Net Is Gripped: A Selection of Contemporary American Poetry (Stride, UK, 1992) and Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams, (U of Iowa Press, 2011). Published in Poetry Salzburg Review, The London Magazine, First Intensity, Arabesques Review, Shearsman, Poetry Northwest, The Salt River Review, Otoliths, Otata, etc.