Paxos

A body washes up on the Greek show 
Maestro in Blu. A small ship 
carries a rogue cop from Corfu. 
The mayor’s wife sleeps with the doctor, 
a good man cursed to live here, 

on the island voted “Most Instagram-able” 
by Brits, who have no clue. The mayor’s 
in deep with Italous—mobsters from Puglia, 
pugnacious heel of the Italian boot. 

The body? Recognizably the kakos 
anthropos who used a chain to beat his wife, 
the mother of the mayor’s son’s lover, Spyros. 
No one on Paxos didn’t want him dead. 

I read subtitles, safe from my raging 
Roman spouse, having lugged my clothes, 
shoes, books to the high-ceilinged house
of married friends with funds, away 
on vacation in the Ionian. 

HILARY SIDERIS

Hilary Sideris is the author of the poetry collections Calliope (Broadstone Books, 2024), Liberty Laundry (Dos Madres Press, 2022), Animals in English (Dos Madres Press, 2020), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press, 2019), Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books, 2019), and The Inclination to Make Waves (Big Wonderful, 2016).