No Return To Varoşa by Alun Robert

 


 

Alun Robert was born in Scotland of Irish ancestry. He is a prolific creator of lyrical verse. Of late, he has achieved success in poetry competitions and featured in international literary magazines, anthologies and on the web.

 


 

 

             

             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

No Return To Varoşa

 

 

 

 

 

Varoşa : once glamorous holiday resort now at the eastern extremity

          of the Cyprus Forbidden Zone guarded by the United Nations

 

Yasak Bölge Girilmez : Forbidden Zone created after the

          1974 division of Cyprus into Turkish & Greek sectors

 

Behind rusting barbed wire

graffitied corrugated iron

with Yasak Bölge Girilmez

signs of blood scarlet

read by diasporics longing

hoping, dreaming

Their Wait

while just out of sight

armed guards goosestep

up from the twinkling Med

with kilometers of empty beaches

engaging the prom

 

to The Jungle

 

concrete, imposing

multiple floors high crumbling

overgrown with verdant asps

strewn with sand grains massed

populated by stray mongrels

chasing feral Van cats

en pursuit of vermin

the rattus rattus of death

but devoid of turista

in kafe, bistro, ôtel

now as dark through the day

as from crepuscular to dawn

where Bardot, Taylor, Welch

Their Set

once smouldered with chic

blinded by faux-light, while

a sylvia melanothorax warbles

as ripe effluent stinks

almost half a century gone

yet not a step closer.

 

 

Alun Robert

 

After Roger Deakin by Alun Robert

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