My friends 1 are black birds
My friends 2 are tight wires
My friends are black birds
who seesaw on the terraces of houses that are ready to collapse
Exarcheia, Patission, Metaxourgeio, Mets 3
They do whatever
Sell recipe books and encyclopedias
They fix roads and unite deserts
Interpreters at the cabarets of Xenon 4
Professional revolutionaries
In the past, they pressured them and took them down
Now they take pills and alcohol in order to sleep
but they have dreams and do not sleep
My friends are black birds
My friends are tight wires
My friends are tight wires
on the terraces of old houses
Exarcheia, Victoria, Koukaki, Gyzi
On them you have hung your guilt in the form of
millions of iron clothespins
decisions of congress,
borrowed suits,
cigarette burns,
strangemigraines,
threatening silences
vaginal infections
they fall in love with homosexuals
trichomonads
delay
the telephone
broken pieces of glass
the ambulance
No one…
My friends are black birds
My friends are tight wires
They do whatever
they are always traveling, my friends
because you have not left them a hand's breadth of space
All of my friends paint with black
because you have ruined red for them
They write in a language of catchwords
because yours is only good for flattery 5
My friends are black birds and wires
around your neck, on your hands
My friends...
My friends are black birds
My friends are tight wires
1. they first refer to male friends 2. here they refer to female friends 3. neighborhoods of Athens 4. street named after the ancient philosopher/ Byzantine emperor (474-491 ACE) 5. lit: licking