A Detail Poem by Joseph S. Josephides

'…they helped Adam to descend with a robe from a window'
It’s just a detail about Arkadi in the booklet for tourists.

They sent him for help from chief Coronaeos who shouted
‘You fool, sit here, if you return you will be burned and lost.’’

He disobeyed, disguised he slipped in the dark,
returned to the women, the children, the paralysed
stood close to priest Gabriel in the lagoon
ready for the confession and the massacre:
'To die as free, is my pleasure; death does not exist'.

Rumors say that he was thrown in a pit,
wherein he now lives on roots and water,
St Mary entered him in her icon, as angel with a lily.
Others say he climbed on a tree to save an orphan,
that hugged him and both ascended, in a compound body.

The guide explains calmly what is Sacrifice of the sacrifice
Adam Papadakis had chosen death, neglecting sensibility
holier than Leonidas, who had to obey the law anyway.

'…they helped Adam to descend with a robe from a window',
its a detail in the booklet for tourists, but as for you
chief Coronaeos, the tourist finally guide concludes:
‘who saves his insignificant self, is not saved at all’.


© JosephJosephides