Leaving Vlora Poem by Fatos Arapi

I am leaving without saying good-bye to the sea.

This one time
I did not foray to those familiar banks to bid farewell
To the gulls. I can no longer bear their absence.
Perhaps I am growing old,
My cells are beginning to falter and perhaps...
My heart is failing.
I can no longer stand
That distance of body from body.

Must I be off?
Without turning back!

Yet on my lacerated lips
Do I sense the searing sting of iodine and sea salt.