Start typing \u2018Athens’
\ninto your search engine<\/p>\n
and predictively
\nyou’ll be sent to Athens,<\/p>\n
Georgia. But isn’t
\nthe capital of Georgia<\/p>\n
Tbilisi, you ask.
\nHome is neither here nor there.<\/p>\n
You’d better think again
\nif you expect to find<\/p>\n
the English northwest
\nwhen you enter \u2018Manchester’.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michelle and Carla<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t bother issuing denials, ladies: <\/p>\n I’m drawn west <\/p>\n The Cheeses of Cyprus<\/strong><\/p>\n In the rugged interior Halloumi<\/em> is a cooking cheese: the outside becomes crisp and slightly charred Halloumi<\/em> is also made in the Lebanon and Romania. <\/p>\n from<\/em> Translations<\/strong><\/p>\n The cold is starting to get into my bones which have stayed anaemic, brittle, sapped *<\/p>\n Question marks look like semi-colons\u00cb\u2122 We soak dried fruit or nuts in asbestos \u2013 *<\/p>\n Money multiplies \u2013 changes from singular to an abstract, that each unit of it is tied to <\/p>\n which have stayed anaemic, brittle, sapped Money multiplies \u2014 changes from singular to an abstract, that each unit of it is tied to By Christodoulos Makris<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[484,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maintenant","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthese photos leave little room for doubt.
\nFor a start, there’s your gaze into each other’s eyes,
\nthe intense t\u00c3\u00aate-\u00c3\u00a0-t\u00c3\u00aates, the resting of heads
\non the other’s shoulder, the relaxed familiarity,
\nthe gentle holding of hands \u2013
\nthough it’s not clear whose is the upper hand.
\nWhat’s quite clear is that your love is warm:
\nnone of that dog collar and gimp-costume stuff
\nof the Bush and Blair era.
\nTheirs was a hardcore affair,
\nbest kept under floorboards in grubby basements
\nalongside snuff movies, pederasty and coprophilia;
\nthe porn the two of you produce is soft,
\nof the kind accessible by anyone over twelve.
\nAccording to these mags
\nyou’ve begun to borrow from each other’s wardrobes,
\nyour styles intermingling
\nas if we’re in the grip of another nouvelle vague.
\nAnd which of you controls the harem that escorts you \u2013
\nis it a joint venture, an equilateral arrangement?
\nEmbedded reportage of your satin-smooth romance
\nwould be infinitely preferable to copy and photographs
\nfrom Gaza and Chechnya
\nor the nuclear militarization of North Korea.
\nMaybe it’s just old perverts like me who think like this.
\nThank you, in any case,
\nfor stoking our fantasies for years to come.<\/p>\n
\ncom
\npass
\nion<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwards, staggering unbalanced
\nas if my ear
\n‘s been hacked off. Tuned
\nout. I fall in a gutter, mud un
\ndried in the north
\nern sun. The wine here
\n‘s corked. In time I’m hauled
\nout by a dark
\nhand, her flailing be
\nflowered hair conceal
\ning a surgic
\nal mind. We lie and talk
\nof home. South is my orient
\nation, I say. South
\nis where I repeated
\nly come
\nfrom, she offers. Half
\narcs there on the night sky
\nmap our motions.<\/p>\n
\nshepherds have continued to keep goats and sheep
\nthrough centuries of conflict,
\nmaking cheese in the same way as their forefathers.<\/p>\n
\nits character is only revealed when heated.
\nIt holds its shape when fried or grilled;
\nwhen slices of it are placed in a hot pan<\/p>\n
\nwhile the centre melts.
\nIt’s now popular among young chefs
\nin Australia, New Zealand and the West Coast of America.<\/p>\n
\nOther cheeses common in Cyprus
\nare the Greek feta<\/em> and kaskavali <\/em>\u2013
\nrelated to the Bulgarian katschkawalj <\/em>and the Italian caciocavallo<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\neven though they are firm and crammed
\nfull of calcium and iron, unlike my \u00ce\u00ba\u00cf\u0152\u00ce\u00ba\u00ce\u00ba\u00ce\u00b1\u00ce\u00bb\u00ce\u00b1<\/p>\n
\nlike skeletons unearthed ages after interment,
\ncrumbling at the touch of inquiring fingers.<\/p>\n
\ncolons are hardly ever applied: except
\nwhen we get mad and vie to bugger you!<\/p>\n
\npart of the process of making sweet. What,
\ndo you not put limestone in your columns\u00cd\u00be<\/p>\n
\nplural \u2013 if you journey east enough. Is this because
\nthere the understanding persists that it’s not<\/p>\n
\nthe use \u2013 \u00cf\u2021\u00cf\u0081\u00ce\u00ae\u00ce\u00bc\u00ce\u00b1 \u2013 of the land? That, like
\ntime, money can’t be made out of thin air?<\/p>\n![\"hpim11151\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hpim11151.jpg\")
\nABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/strong>
\nChristodoulos Makris<\/strong> was born in Nicosia in 1971. He studied in Manchester, and has lived and worked in Preston, London and Dublin. He now lives in north County Dublin and works in the public library service of Fingal County Council. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals, and his chapbook Round the Clock<\/em> was published by Wurm Press in 2009. He co-founded and ran the Poetry Upfront series of readings and events, and has worked as Dublin regional editor for Succour magazine. A collection with title Spitting Out the Mother Tongue<\/em> is due out from Wurm Press in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"hpim11151\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hpim11151-150x150.jpg\")
The cold is starting to get into my bones
\neven though they are firm and crammed
\nfull of calcium and iron, unlike my \u00ce\u00ba\u00cf\u0152\u00ce\u00ba\u00ce\u00ba\u00ce\u00b1\u00ce\u00bb\u00ce\u00b1<\/p>\n
\nlike skeletons unearthed ages after interment,
\ncrumbling at the touch of inquiring fingers…<\/p>\n
\nplural \u2014 if you journey east enough. Is this because
\nthere the understanding persists that it’s not<\/p>\n
\nthe use \u2014 \u00cf\u2021\u00cf\u0081\u00ce\u00ae\u00ce\u00bc\u00ce\u00b1 \u2014 of the land? That, like
\ntime, money can’t be made out of thin air?<\/p>\n