1471, Dust of Tingis

The old maps smell of salt and sun-bleached lime,

stiff vellum cracked by the weight of a fourteen-seventy-one afternoon.

I sit on the porch with a cold glass,

letting the North African wind rattle the screen—

Tangier, they call it now,

though the tongue trips back to Tingi,

ancient Greek syllables dragging across the Strait

where the water changes its mind.

They say the giant is buried here,

Antaeus, son of the earth and the shaker of seas,

his ribs like the hull of an upturned caravel,

his skull wide enough to catch the Atlantic spray.

You can feel him breathing under the cobblestones

near the cave where Hercules slept off the lions—

that narrow throat of the world

where two great waters slam together

like freight trains on a single track.

Everybody wanted a piece of this dirt.

Carthage, Rome, the long-bearded caliphs riding hard out of the east,

and then the Portuguese galleons creeping down the coast

after they took Ceuta, hungry for gold and sugar.

Mercenaries with notched blades,

kings with ink on their fingers,

wanderers sleeping in doorways with their boots worn through—

they all washed up here to die or get rich,

leaving their names in the mortar of the kasbah.

Yet the boys kicking footballs against the whitewashed walls

don't give a damn about the garrison flags.

They know the real kings of the harbor:

Matisse with his heavy blue oils,

Delacroix squinting at the blinding souk light,

Beckett sitting quiet in a corner of the cafe,

Capote with his high, sharp laugh cutting through the kif smoke,

and Bertolucci framing the tea-house shadows.

The empires rotted and blew away like chaff,

but the ink stayed.

The city belongs to the ghosts who stayed to write.

to be continued 

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 ELENCHUS... A Trial of History"    (18)

PUBLICATION IDENTITY & CREDITS

Original Text & Inspiration:

Panayotis V. Mataragas (Rotterdam)

The foundational vision, drafted at the crossroads of European history.

Language Editing & Adaptation:

Kellene G. Safis (Chicago)

Refining the rhythm and pulse through a definitive American lens.

Digital Editing & Formatting:

Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga (Piraeus)

The architectural assembly and final form at the Great Port.

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 ELEGHOS... at history