Nicholas Samaras

Mrinalini

Years after the October Assassination of Prime Minister Gandhi

I don’t remember saving these clippings,
decades ago. When did the pages dinge
yellow from their dark petals of print?
I remember Mrinalini and her country,
her curled syllables of language,
my youthful desire. Our lives were lived.
New York and India past, and the years
to learn that assassinations have grown

into daily occurrences, varying types.
In Florida’s October where summer seems
endless, holding the sun like a crucible,
I remember Lini, cherished and gone.
In another country, history happened.
In another country, the air is edged with fall.

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Nicholas Samaras is from Patmos, Greece (the “Island of the Apocalypse”) and at the time of the political Greek Junta (“Coup of the Generals”) was brought in exile to be raised further in America. He has lived in Greece, Asia Minor, England, Wales, Brussels, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, Jerusalem, thirteen states in America and he writes from a place of permanent exile. Currently, he is writing a poetry textbook, and critiques client-poetry by appointment.