Age of Salt, by Maria Christodoulou

Chipre Atril press — Ecos de sal,
Imagen generada por la IA

I was born where the earth itself does not know where it ends. Some named me an island, some a coast, and others a border; no one, ever, asked me. I carry in my flanks harbors that changed flags, cities sleeping beneath layers of dust and mute prayers. At night, I still hear the footsteps of those who left; they echo in the dark, and I do not know if they return in secret or if memory is playing its final game with me.

They called me a woman because I learned to give birth to life, even when everything around me insisted on dying. And yet, do not be deceived. I am not passive patience; I am not silence. I am the salt that stubbornly remains on the skin when history pulls back like a wave, leaving the truth bare.

And I wait. Not for salvation. Only for that moment when people will finally look each other in the eyes, to remember that the water surrounding us was never made to divide.

Maria Christodoulou Atril press — Maria Christodoulou hails from Famagusta, Cyprus, and lives in Larnaca. She studied pedagogy at the Cyprus Pedagogical Academy and at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Following that, preceded with her postgraduate studies at the University of Reading, UK. Her creative path moves between poetry and painting, seeking “the light within memory.”
Her debut poetry collection, Gestures in the Light (2023), marks the emergence of a poetic voice that explores memory, place, and the collective “we.” Her work has been published and translated into English and Italian.
She is a member of literary and cultural organizations in Cyprus and Greece and actively participates in initiatives dedicated to literature and the arts.

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