sat behind the wheel

I'm periodically reminded that i'm lucky enough to travel in this beautiful country, despite most of the things that make someone feel less than lucky to be living here. One of those things isn't really unique to Athens, but perhaps more noticeable thanks to the ever present layer of dust that covers everything. There's a shade of green you find in places like Arcadia, and Yorkshire for that matter, that brings into focus what is wrong with the green of a city. I've never figured out whether it sits on top, or if the plant breathes in the same crap that we do and turns a lovely shade of grey.

sat behind the wheel waiting to begin the day grey green leaves stare back

It is easy to point out our atrophied attention span (mind at the very least), and like Neo in the matrix when I ask why I can’t use my focus I am met with the answer: you’ve never used it before. Unfortunately I cannot simply download function-fu to my brain, so I am stuck with building the muscles the old fashioned way.

a delight to find a turtle in the garden again the car waits

If I ever start a band, I may end up calling it ‘suicidal Athenian pedestrians’ in honour of the people who amble through this city, blissfully unaware of the traffic around them, like a turtle shuffling through grass.

It is still raining, and one of my poetic idols did claim that “the dust of the world” still clung to him, much as it does to every surface of this city, the rain not only does nothing to help but rather deposits a lovely coating of clay to everything. New week, same muddy rain. It feels like a third dry country I have managed to bring a little bit of home to.

i watch the rain start hoping for a bath instead more dust

the desk unchanging focus seems to float away how unbearable

One thing I have been trying is to not have any music or podcasts on in the car, which does give me a little mental workout; and while its not like I have noticed anything I didn’t notice before, but it bring a little more immediacy.

i wait an offer passed with the wave of the hand wild grass splitting road