Clockwise by Maria Schiza

Counting hours like breaths;

meaning is not what is meant,

but it can be found,

fidgeting in the dark.

Reading in-between the words,

you know this is a love song;

loose threads treading up the river

against the silver backs of trout.

Calling things by their name

 is the oldest kind of magic.

Power is sound offset

against an offering.

Thinking carefully

about what you will offer

means tasting that

which you are giving up.

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Maria Schiza is a freelance writer and translator from Thessaloniki, Greece. She has graduated with a master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Nottingham and is currently a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, studying ekphrastic poetry. Her work has previously appeared in Persephone’s Daughters, on the website of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, in Voices, and others.