beyond da ta
and the mile is smooth
like the Ionian sky
turquoise and
feathery
as the wind whistles
echoes
spring from the
searing seawater.
there to here, a
cornering line of
british barbed wire
bears vestiges of the
perforated ermou
caddesi
from UN wire to
unwiring this
naturalised protection
at any rate between
mili(tarrying) jets
flying low
and
moderate alerts
lying on car windows
autographed by the sovereign
authorities of akrotiri
DO NOT LEAVE
YOUR
PERSONAL
BELONGINGS
UNATTENDED
THANK YOU
ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΩ
(TEŞEKKÜR EDERİM)
i smile
glassy-eyed
remaking
airport and subway
pronouncements
post 9/11
interposing my
freedom to choose
how i perceive
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING
SAY SOMETHING.
a US’s DHS’s
PSAs
aslant
detonate
dread
racial profiling
criminalising Muslims
guilty until feigning they are guilty
immigrants and refugees
now attacked by smart enforcement
transmogrifying
protection into
arrant
racism, islamophobia
we resist
and reverse fear
into tools
of emanating
empowerment, of
empathy.
stamboul’s
barbed fences
hem in and tear
Kurds, Trans Turks, Sex Workers, Roma, Immigrants
tarlabaşı’s communities
from neighbourging beyoğlu.
military tanks anchored in
the central quarter away from the boulevard
demarcating land and air
as buildings are demolished
and denizens evicted.
i’m arrested by the
monumental
gated-ness,
the gross capital
eating through Istanbul’s
zoned city
barging into
human bodies
reduced to human waste.
where am i,
traversing the caveat
of
new york
rio de janeiro
the kingdom
stamboul or cyprus.
in
king’s cross’
marks & spencer
a luggage is
lugged and
left erect,
the onliest
clitizen
awaiting
an eye-ray
unbeknownst
to its owner.
the queue
instantly
cut
by the
grunt of a brash
blue-collar
6-foot frigid
guard
IF YOU DO NOT
CLAIM YOUR SUITCASE
WE WILL REMOVE IT
AND THE STATION
WILL IMMEDIATELY
BE EVACUATED
HALTING TRAINS
LEAVING LONDON
the traveler incriminated
dropped the
generic
pret a manger something
on the fridge’s shelf
in flight for vanishing.
the freedom to suspect
is new law!
in october last
the
chronic coup in brasil
stumped its macho
neo-lib fist over
students
pardo and preto
poor and public
slashing subsidies
pauperising
social education.
over a thousand schools
across brasil were
occupied
frenzied and resolved
to oust temer.
FORA TEMER FORA
TEMER FORA
TEMER
the 1%
public parasites are
for a temer.
Bea Camila
Andressa Clarice Felipe
Joao Pedro Vitor Joaquim
and mucho others
occupied the colégio
estadual monteiro de
carvalho
in
santa teresa
for 7 months.
in the mean time
working computers never accessed
libraries of fortune in archives dug away
were spotted
on the floor
above the ground level
to which students were
confined when they
were (not)
occupying.
…
it breezed from the west.
what’s imminent in
every short moment ()
which terrorist, thief
or muscle?
In a flickering movement beyond,
a
twinkling vagary
emanates from an
azure at hand.
i
smile again,
a single smile
this time.
she flaps her wings
as i hum the ladybird away,
and she heads farther
west
to that military base.
…
Maria Petrides (b.1973, UK) is an independent writer, editor and translator. She has contributed to magazines/anthologies & art publications. She has participated as writer in residencies in NYC, Nicosia, Istanbul, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, and curated/coordinated for Gowanus Studio Space, NYC, depo, Istanbul & The Breeder, Athens. She’s translator of Wow, a political comic book by Ariadni Kousela, Patakis Publishers & co-translator of Bill Ayers’, To Teach the Journey, in Comics, contributing author for the collection, A Book of Small Things & assistant editor for Evripides Zantides’, Semiotics: Visual communication II, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Η Μαρία Πετρίδη (γενν.1973, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο) είναι ανεξάρτητη συγγραφέας, επιμελήτρια κειμένων & μεταφράστρια. Κείμενα της έχουν δημοσιευτεί σε περιοδικά/ανθολογίες & εκδόσεις τεχνών, έχει συμμετάσχει ως συγγραφέας σε residencies στη ΝΥ, Λευκωσία, Κων/πολη, Ελσίνκι, Ρίο Ντε Τζανέιρο, Γενεύη και έχει επιμεληθεί/συμμετείχει σε εκθέσεις στο Gowanus Studio Space, ΝΥ, το DEPO, Kων/πολη και The Breeder, Aθήνα. Είναι μεταφράστρια του πολιτικού κόμικ «Wow» της Χρύσας Ariadni Κουσελά, Εκδόσεις Πατάκη, συν-μεταφράστρια του «To να διδάσκεις, Το ταξίδι σε κόμικς» του Bill Ayers, και συγγραφέας στο A Book of Small Things ενώ είναι βοηθός επιμελήτρια του «Semiotics: Visual communication II» του Ευριπίδη Ζαντίδη.
aglimpseof.net 