The vertiginous peaks
rising behind it
isolate the town
as its conquerors isolate themselves
from its past while claiming it.
But the past is everywhere,
holding the present
in a gentle embrace,
whispering: “Without us,
the shades of before,
you could never exist.”
June 2016
Note: The innocent foreign visitor could scarcely guess from the official Turkish tourist map and guide book that the town was inhabited by Greeks throughout its 3000 year history until 1974, as the word “Greek” is used only once (“the Greek Orthodox Church of the Archangel Michael”), and its Greek name “Kerẏneia” does not appear, but only its Turkish name “Girne” and the English Kyrenia.