He came over (to the

counter), ordered a coffee, and asked me

if I was Lebanese (cos he

was) – I said “No” / Greek.

     He asked me,

what I was reading and I said “Poetry”.

     I asked him,

did he like it, and he said he did.

     I asked him,

if he knew a poet called Nazim Hikmet

     and he said:

               “When did he live?”

     I said,

at the turn of the century (in

Turkey) – he spent a lot of time in prison

layed down

               a few steps

     …but

the bloke, couldn’t say he had

     so I asked him

if there were any good poets in Lebanon

     and he said “Omar Khayyam”.

I asked him, if the papers (in

     Australia) published any poems

and he said, they did

     but their meaning (their

meaning) he said, was too BIG (too too

     big) and a lot of it

got lost in translation. He said, the poets (in

Lebanon) were very clever; They’d

show-Up at the market, and start

reciting their poems.

     One of the poets (for

example) would start reciting a poem

about the NIGHT (say)

i.e. How beautiful it was, with the moon

and all the people walking up’n’down

the esplanade, and so on

     while the other (poet)

would take an opposite view: A poem about

the DAYLIGHT (say): The kids (out on

the streets) playing in the gutter

and so on; And this, he said

would go on back’n’forth back’n’forth (all

night) until one of ’em

ran out of things to say (sticking closely

to his chosen subject).

     I asked him, if he could

remember one, and he said he could.

     He said, he could

remember one about “Horses + shoes”!

     One of the poets, he said

started waxing-lyrical, about how the RICH

walk around on plush carpets

and about how the POOR

have to make do with the hole in their shoe

and the audience (and the

audience!) he said, gave him

a tremendous ovation, when he finished

cos they liked him.

           Then it was

the other bloke’s turn, he said

and he began reciting a poem about

hundreds of Horsemen

racing towards a red-ribbon on the ground.

     He said, all

the Horsemen were lined-Up (behind

the starting line), and when the GUN went-off

the horses-hooves hit the ground

     so,ooo,ooo hard

that the whole sky became filled with

     horseshoes.