One Night in Samos
by David Adès


One night in Samos —
as an aside to an ongoing discussion
about spirituality and lust,
about elevating the body above
its inclination towards another,

and with no reference at all
to Pythagoras —

Angel Ivo Garcia crunches possibilities,
as the two of us sit at a table in the square
by the waterfront,
no doubt with a carafe of Retsina or Samiana
and two glasses

which we fill with wine
and our respective loneliness:

'See that girl over there',
he says, pointing to a girl sitting alone
at another table
wrapped in a shawl of summer beauty
and her thoughts,

'She could be the one',
and indeed she could, I think, stealing glances,

'but you will never know',
afraid as I am, holding on to my glass,
my chair, the solid ground beneath,
tongue no match for my thoughts,
the fire of my imagination licking the night

while I sit, once more,
rooted to the spot.






Copyright © 2024 by Red River Review. First Rights Reserved. All other rights revert to the authors.
No work may be reproduced or republished without the express written consent of the author.