MARIA PETRIDES
Strings 2
‘about lighthouses not having to move to save a ship’
September 2024
in Paralesis
a candy-red neon peruses Paradise
the size of the doorway,
lights soften
on the dawn of familiarity and fuzziness.
Paradise club
it’s called.
it points somewhere else, as paradise does.
a DeQueering of this spot.
‘80s Long Islands, Euro disco
& sexual healing
paradisiacal & paradoxical
I push through the crowd
in slight retreat.
Clubs were not my thing.
Coded places are still not my thing.
some hold their sight long enough
to draw a slower smile,
sly and shy/
that’s right!
my head, a spinning top,
gyrates at high speed
as bodies grope around or
don’t touch at all.
If I say too much I’m too cerebral
a cloudy zone to avoid in a les club,
not saying enough gives away your desire to just fuck
and buttoned-down lesbians don’t like that.
MARIA PETRIDES is an independent writer, editor & translator from the Eastern Mediterranean, based in Athens, Greece. She writes across forms, short fiction, poetry, art writing, and experimental writing. Her works have appeared in academic journals, zines, anthologies, and art publications. She is contributing author to the book collection conceived by visual artist Panayiotis Michael, A Book of Small Things (2016). She is co-editor of Literary Agency Cyprus anthology, Nicosia beyond barriers - voices from a divided city (Saqi Books, 2019). She is currently working on her first novelette.
