incantation no. 1 (banishing) 

tangled up in the jewelry

dressed up in fabrics not worn 

in years

all bought on credit & 

paid off

 in memory

   (look at the curve of time –

            the kitchen of the ship now spotless)

the unravelling

will come yr way                  u will

realise all this while 

looking at yr 

perfectly

manicured nails 

as the fish gets cold 

at the end of your fork.

incantation no. 2 (binding)

u will becomepart 

of this poem

4 there is no         other

                                thing 

     here but

  the      tapping of the keys 

and the chat                                            

                                tering

of teeth –

(skin peeling off

   into a

    china

 white sky)

the temperature in 

   these rooms

was adjusted long ago

to ensure contamination.

u will 4-ever 

                   be part 

      of this almost-poem:

         this narrative of 

a suicide 

      averted.

incantation no. 3 (living in slowtime)

u will come across my traces

everywhere; I will now have be

come the hole 

in things. U will be 

4-ever haunted by my 

almost-suicide. This will 

be part of ur arc

                               hive.

Ι will be the hole

in things

4-ever in yr vicinity. In

this hell, I 

will be yr Etrigan

& u will be unable

2 see – yr eyes bursting with

puss &

failure. I will 

4-ever be reminding u 

of the hole in things.

Shoaled

 in slowtime

     u will be taught of this.

My will    will 

not be denied:

   the truth

      about us all

now revealed.

My will as in

                     tense as my

anger 

my will now

   stretching into

yr future.

Bio: Theodoros Chiotis is the editor and translator of the anthology Futures: Poetry of the Greek Crisis(Penned in the Margins, 2015). Other publications include Screen(in collaboration with photographer Nikolas Ventourakis; Paper Tigers Books, 2017) and limit.less: towards an assembly of the sick(Litmus, 2017). His work has appeared in Catechism, Litmus, Datableed, Forward Book of Poetry 2017, Adventures in Form, Austerity Measures, Shearsman, aglimpseof, Visual Verse, lyrikline, Otoliths, amongst others. He has translated contemporary British and American poets into Greek and Aristophanes into English. He is a member of the editorial board of the Greek literary magazine [φρμκ]and contributing editor for Hotel magazine. His project Mutualised Archives, an ongoing performative interdisciplinary work, received the Dot Award by the Institute for the Future of Book and Bournemouth University; he has also been awarded a High Commendation from the Forward Prizes for Poetry in 2017. 

Image: jodielaurahex