The large Greek island of Naxos in the Cyclades group is an excellent example of the best of its kind, and in any era: wealthy, influential, single-minded, ancient and beautiful. The narrow passage-like streets of Chora, its major settlement, inspire in some an other-worldly sense of the preternatural, the extraordinary. Hence this speculation.

 

Distant Windows

Out of silence a figure appears

in profile at a distant window,

an image twisted in ancient glass,

its task unknown, its face unseen.

Suddenly she turns, becomes a smile,

perhaps a rictus. Silently

she mouths the words

“I'm dying”.

 

Chris Hubbard

Naxos, Cyclades, Greece

2016