ABSENCE:- A POEM BY YANNIS RITSOS,THE GREAT GREEK POET !

In his hands he held the shadow of his hands.
The night was beautiful―the others didn’t notice that he was holding his shadow.
The night helped. He was being watched. So he considered the others even more.

The sea was still staring at his eyes―he was missing.
A girl buttoned his jacket slowly
―he was looking elsewhere, smiling across the immense distance.

Perhaps, high up in the starlight, a skylight danced,
looking down at the olives and the burned houses.
He listened to the butterfly return to the All Souls’ Day glass
and to the fisherman’s daughter crush the silence with the coffee grinder.