AthensScapes: Mets
 by Kathryn Koromilas
     
 ONE hundred or so years ago, if you said you were going to Mets you would be referring to the name of a beer-drinking hole that appeared in around 1870 and whose owner, fascinated by the Battle of Metz during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, baptised his entertainment spot after the French […]

AthensScapes: Psyrri
by Kathryn Koromilas
IT’S early afternoon in Psyrri. The streets are quietly enjoying a lazy siesta before a busy evening when hundreds of feet will traverse them in search of their evening entertainment in the numerous restaurants and bars that have emerged here in the last couple of years.
I’m sitting with a friend in an […]

Teiresias in Detroit
by Kathryn Koromilas
[Published in Greece Now, January 2003 ]
Jeffrey Eugenides’ second novel is just about your average Greek-American hermaphrodite
Jeffrey Eugenides hit the literary big time in 1993 with his slim but peculiar debut The Virgin Suicides. Heavyweight New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani remarked that Eugenides tale of five beautiful but unhappy sisters […]

The Philosophy of Friendship
by Kathryn Koromilas
A happy life, observed Epicurus many many years ago, is one in which you are surrounded by true friends.
I remembered this ancient adage soon after I broke up with my long-term boyfriend. During our relationship my boyfriend had served two roles, lover and friend. When we broke up, […]

Judas said, “Master, could it be that my seed is under the control of the rulers?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Come, that I [—two lines missing—], but that you will grieve much when you see the kingdom and all its generation.” When he heard this, Judas said to him, “What good is it […]

When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write on page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.
John Steinbeck

Desire
I expect I’ll want a man like you, again.
There’s a point in the future, I’ll have you
roll up the sleeves of your tight cotton tee,
pinch the muscle there– as if to prove
there’s no dream. Your stomach, the skin
under your chin and your feet on the ground
will be firm and this will verify that I’m worn;
my […]

Blackwoman, Whitewoman
for Sonia Sanchez and Aristophanes
I love your skin–
when I lay beside you and my hands
work over you, we are art on a bed
propped up against a gallery wall.
I love the twist of our fingers,
the curious coalescence of our pigments
intertwined in genetic fascination,
our separate possibilities linking
the forgotten beneath.
When we stand in front of each other
and […]

On The Desire To Be Famous 
by Kathryn Koromilas 
Because I’ve not been written about in history,
I’ll do these things. Because no one knows my name,
no one knows all the things to be envied in me.
Because I want to be bloody filthy famous,
I’m off to cash in on my fifteen minutes-
and it’s rush hour at the Warhol.
I […]

love and thick metaphors
by Kathryn Koromilas 
i.
if i pull a thick
metaphor
out of a thin
hat, will you bring your ruler?
ii.
measure this:
i slide down the curve of your spine and whisper Silk Smooth Paper
(thickness of metaphor, 385 gsm)
i tap the skin there, press keyboard-button bones
(size of metaphor, Lucida Sans 14 pt, Bold)
and make the word dapple
–i’m about to […]