Loss

by Elena Pitsilidou


Disco lights and silence
Your figure moves in chaotic intervals
I try to call you but my voice is muted
I can only hear ocean waves and I can sometimes touch
your sun-kissed skin
I can see my younger self, ignorant and innocent
unbeknownst to the fact that I would only reach you through memory
I keep you safe in dark-mattered alleys
I keep you safe in aging, videotaped films
I keep you safe in the place I saw you last.

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Elena Pitsilidou is an English teacher and an emerging writer from Cyprus. Her work has appeared in print and online literary magazines such as Film Matters, We Said Go Travel and The Cabinet of Heed. One of her poems won the first prize of the poetry competition of the University of Cyprus in 2020 and another poem was included in an anthology published by Archytas publishing house in Greece in 2024.