What is the Mediterranean? A deep feeling is telling me it’s not about mere geography. Yes, a lot of things revolve around the sea. The Mediterranean, perhaps, is the fourth side of the sea. It is that space from which a person looks into the distance, hence, it’s a space of openness, freedom, and, at last – being ready for anything. But it is also a space turned towards itself, because everyone who silently looks at the sea, looks inside of themself, too. Geographically, it’s the South. Therefore, it’s neither North nor West, but the South – oftentimes – destitute South, that manifests itself in its wind, the so-called „Southern wind“, Sirocco, and we all, after all, know what that wind is – it is to the land what the Moon is to the sky – it rules the people, in a special way.

And those people, that folk – Mediterraneans, they live in their own way. It’s the way everyone would love to live. First of all, they know how to slow down time, how to predominate it. Then, they know how to eat and drink. They eat lightly and drink the whole day. Here, where I am today, they drink tsipouro, 40% alcoholic beverage, made of vine, transparent, served with ice, and you have to eat something with it. Ideally – small fish, salad and fava. Furthermore, Mediterraneans live in public, not in private. Their houses are always half-open, the curtains sway at night, and you can hear the voices and the radio sounds coming from the rooms. During the day, they talk loudly and wave their hands. Mediterraneans, they are hearty people.

During a long, snowless winter, which was threatening to stay with us forever, over there on the North, I was thinking about the Mediterranean. About the lightness, behind which sometimes it is cruelty, but we, who are merely visiting, don’t get to it. One should not idealize. The Mediterranean is lovely under the sun, and Chekhov says: „when the sun is shining, even the graveyard is nice“. Earlier, maybe, the Mediterranean was even more beautiful, because the sun wasn’t scorching, like today, and those people, too, tourists, weren’t so numerous and weren’t sticking their phones in every plate and every tsipouro. There is too much of everything in the world, especially of human arrogance and of trash. So that’s why I need a residency. It is my Mediterranean. I shut my eyes and the blue flickers inside. I open my eyes and it is still here. The sea.

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bright graves

on my way this morning

I have met a lot of jellyfish

they are swimming dead in shallow water

got cooked

that’s how I’ve been told

that the drought kills livestock

in our region

that’s far away from here

when I jump into the sea

I say god thank you

That sea exists

and that it’s me who’s in it 

what did I do to deserve this

my grandma was 

a much better person than me

and she had never seen the sea

again I say thank you

that on my way 

I saw jellyfish and the rest

and not just cows and sheep

like my folks

who were all on earth

so that I would end up in the sea.