George Moore

The Barbarians

We talk for weeks along the quay
where the pizza parlors are stacked like
cards in a deck, waiting for the ships

to loll in, spend their single days
and cash, and slip away into the dark
Mediterranean. True Greek, I think

until we settle in one evening, a slow
time on the docks, the empty ocean
swallowing up the sounds of radios.

And she admits she’s from Bulgaria,
some thirty years before, one of those
loose children of the world revolution,

escaping the Soviet zone, looking
for whatever could be bought without
a card. A barbarian. The gates

of Rhodes, behind us in the half light,
rise up to tourist expectations. We talk
of collapsed economies, and compare

the faces on our coins.

Author Bio

George Moore’s book of poems, Children’s Drawings of the Universe, will be released in Ireland in 2012. He recently completed an artist residency on the island of Paros in Greece, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best of the Web awards.