hyperborea**

     Never on land or by sea will you find the marvelous road to the feasts of Hyperborea.

                                                           Pindar

 

I did not go to amsterdam this time  i

chose to meet you somewhere else a

place i never arrived and now this place

is just a place in my mind.

but  

 

when i was much younger i visited amsterdam once,

 

but i was a person of great extremes and

the torrid sun beat down on my scorched youth, on a

thirst insatiable as the parched castillian plain and so i was 

driven

driven

to cross the great North Sea to

scandinavia

where i thought perhaps

the fjords might quench my thirst

and the chill air and ice cleanse desire and

so you see i never would have chosen amsterdam but

amsterdam chose me.

i got as far as hamburg on my eurail pass and i stood before the Sea, but then i

ran into some friends from munich headed to holland and they

were very good friends and they insisted i go with them. and I

really couldn't say no. And so i never crossed the great North Sea. i inhaled it

but i never crossed it

and

 

they drove me 

they drove me to holland. 

it

 

was fall in amsterdam and cool and bright and

everyone spoke english and everyone was friendly even the police and

in the rijksmuseum even the paintings were friendly. And

we walked along the canals and i remember so clearly

how the houses all seemed to be smiling, with two big windows for eyes and a great door mouth. i remember

amsterdam as a smile

yet   

 

 

this time when you asked me to go to Amsterdam i

said no. i don’t know why.  i

chose to meet you somewhere else, a place i never arrived. a place that is now just a

place in my mind.

from amsterdam you phoned me we

wanted each other so i

asked you what if you fell into a canal all shitfaced stoned.  you

laughed you said you wouldn’t, they were all frozen over. it

was cold you see, it was winter. but i

 have since come to understand that

you are not a person who falls easily into canals and

you skate very well on ice thank you always

avoiding the cracks. i 

am not like you i am

different 

 

 

i 

did not go i

don't know why i

chose to meet you elsewhere   then

you said no i 

didn't understand i

loved you so i 

said please  please don't but you

drove me you

drove me

away anyway

you

 

were frozen cold you   see

 you were winter

and now that place, you, amsterdam, all places in my mind

yet   

 

still i cannot help but know deep in my bone that had i

chosen  amsterdam this time when you 

wanted me so that

you would''ve fallen into a canal after all, into the

cracks in the ice and

let  me pull you out, both shitfaced stoned,  or pulled me in with you

wouldn't've mattered which,

with the houses all seeming to smile

just as they did when the sun seared down on the torrid plains of my scorched and thirsty youth and drove me

drove me

to cross the great North Sea

 

i inhaled it

but i never crossed it. 

 

 

 

and well i know you. and you will say

it is all my imagination anyway and

imagination is just a place in the mind

and 

yes, it's true, i agree with you

 

 

but it is a large place

a very large place

 

 

it looms very large in the mind.

 

  **Hyperborea was a place far beyond Thrace.  It was the home of the North Wind where the sun shone twenty-four hours a day.  And it was perfect.  It was a place ithat existed n the Greek imagination.