Lynn White's poem "An Alphabetical Error"

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Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Gyroscope Review, and So It Goes. 

Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/


An Alphabetical Error

 

We had a map, 

of course we did!

And the names of the streets 

were clearly written

in English.

The names on the streets

were also clearly written

but in Cyrillic Greek,

of course they were!

This was Athens in 1966

and we were struggling 

to find the Folk Museum.

 

Then we had a stroke of luck!

We spied a grand building 

with sentries in national dress

standing outside

and we knew we’d found it!

So we went inside

and wandered around for a bit.

 

It was unusually empty,

the rooms and corridors devoid

of the expected folk exhibits.

A smartly dressed woman 

descended the stairs

carrying a file of paper.

We asked her if she had a Guide.

She threw us out! 

Of course she did!

The Royal Palace was not open to tourists!

 

It was to be an unrepeatable incursion.

A few months later the colonels took power

and everything changed

except the alphabet.

 

(First published in Pure Slush, 25 Miles From here Anthology, Summer 202)1


© 2022 Lynn White

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