Art: Nikolas Karathanasis

I SAW A KITTEN DEAD ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON

I saw a kitten

dead on Tuesday afternoon,

lying in the shade

 

of the bright green trees

in the corner by the bridge

and the river, where

 

the garbage trucks come

every week, eyes closed, fur wet,

leg twisted, chin red,

 

and I knew it was

the same kitten I had seen

down the road before,

 

playing under a

hedge with another kitten

with three other cats,

 

a helpless victim

now of the heavy rainfall

this month in July,

 

and the day after,

in the place where it had been,

was an empty space

 

upon which I gazed,

recollecting the still scene

of so small a life

 

nature took away,

a memorial of thought

housed within me, where

 

I see a kitten

dead on Tuesday afternoon,

lying in the shade.


About the author:
Alzo David-West is a writer, poet, and academic. His creative writing appears in Abstract Magazine, Antimatter, Cha, Cultural Logic, Eastlit, Grief Diaries, K’in, Missing Slate, Offcourse, Star*Line, StepAway Magazine, Tower Journal, Transnational Literature, and 365 Tomorrows. He is also the editor of scifaiku and tanka translations in Silver Blade and Star*Line.
Art: from Surrealusions by Nikolas Karathanasis

In the artist’s words:

I am Nikolas Karathanasis, living in Athens, Greece. My introduction to photography began several years ago. I associate my work with black and white film through experiment and research; the smell of chemicals, the joy & excitement of composition. Within the past years, I work with digital photography. I have participated in several exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

Facts, pictures of everyday life, ideas, people and their passions, whatever moves in the space of exaggeration. All this is inspirational to me. Photography, as I see it, means communication with the world and this is my motivation. I use many photographic techniques and skills to frame daily scenes and to manipulate the light so to build a bridge of communication with people, in a subtle way. This becomes a vessel for sharing ideas, thoughts and feelings. In so, we are extracted from loneliness, and create a humane environment. New perspectives for the mind to walk on, think, wonder.

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nikokarathanasis
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/nikolas_k_photography/
Blog:
http://nikokarathanassis.blogspot.gr/