Lazy Days

How we enjoyed those idle days

On Crete and in the Cyclades,

Allowed ourselves such sumptuous ways,

With so much time just us to please.

Where has that Mytilene taverna fled

Where an ouzo cost a drach a shot?

A dollar bought you bath and bed.

All submerged now in tourist rot.

Deep into my ninth decade

(the tenth is creeping close behind)

Of idleness I've grown afraid.

I need something to do, I find.

Beneath the Taygetos, your grave

Bespeaks scant comfort to my mind.

Photo: PRD and Marijke Hermans, Spinalonga island, Crete, ca. 1969.

Note: In that era, a US dollar was worth thirty drachmas.

June 2026