My Aunt Hermione

My Aunt Hermione

The story of my aunt Hermione has always bothered me,

lost, according to my father, for a year in Yugoslavia.

Missing, according to my uncle, on the ship

bringing her from Smyrna by the Sea of No One.

Survivors confuse the paths of the dead

with their own, they no longer know what dream,

what memory is from whom.

Was she lost in a time without calendars,

a sea without waves and a ship without walls?

Didn’t she know that while she was alive,

however far she went into the Nameless Country,

she’d always return to the refugee ship

which is the present, which is this planet?

They found her one day, this is for sure,

but if she found herself, nobody’s telling:

one day she disappeared

without leaving any other anecdotes.