Poem that begins in summer & ends in fall

Athens, summer of 2025

You will burn us all this summer—

no, I’m not talking to the sun—Libeccio,

Athenians keep your name in our mouth, 

we refuse to call you just wind,

we call things by their proper name here

as the city turns her corona to witness &

illumine: one is an artefact 

many want to steal. Love is an act of theft: you:

see the target; burn the lovers’ bodies on the beach; 

scrape their patina of memories.

The beach as a proud Athenian doesn’t mind 

your intrusion though I’ve heard the sands 

sing out voyeur. Come now, one comes 

to the city to be in love meaning not forgotten, 

eventually. There is an event here

in aeolian sound coming through:

an incendiary & a flame:

the who’s who rendering openness

into fright or the want to be seen

into cold feet one’s looking back at you burning.

If not in love, then what. 

Athens. Yes & now a new season has come

between you — your days psithurisms 

of dried up seaweed & matted as hair.

Libeccio, you’re stilling meaning heartbroken.

Athens, fall of 2025

Athena Melliar is a Greek feminist poet and essayist who lives and writes in Athens. Athena is a philologist specializing in educational and developmental psychology. Her work has appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Magma Poetry, The Argyle, Occulum, petrichor, Flyway, Harpy Hybrid Review, The Coachella Review, So to Speak, and elsewhere.