Athens Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Athens
This time I was in Athens and met a woman in a park,
she promised me sex a moment of greatness I would
come back to her begging her for more.
I was in my late thirties, knew that sex with a prostitute
was like masturbating, a fantasy only more expensive
I declined, we got talking, and she was like me a communist
she had a university degree in philosophy having no money
she sometimes sold her body, but she could not go uptown
in the case she was recognizable, it was a great night we sat in
a bar drinking ouzo and spoke to early morning and it was
time for me to go back onboard my ship and cook breakfast
For the crew. I don’t know what happened to her but with
her education she eventually got a good employment and
joined the middle classes and a well to do husband who never
knew of her past yet enslaved by her sexual foresight.