The Weight of Disdain by Angela Patera (Greece)

I sometimes ponder on the weight of disdain,
wondering how it feels like to be hated by many.
Especially when once you found yourself bathed in admiration,
only to be caught in a bitter haze, following an error, a mistake.
Like Helen of Troy, wrongfully accused of igniting the Trojan War,
once adored, then loathed, a fall from grace. 

I’m not talking about the bloodthirsty men of the past,
History’s dark stain.
Those earned their hatred,
for they inflicted unbearable pain upon millions
And I hope that as their bones rust under the earth,
their memory gets soiled and tarnished; a second death.
​

I am talking about people like me and you
People with vices and sins,
Navigating life’s intricate laws
Making a mistake,
no malice intended, no harm meant;
yet the tides turn, and love transforms to ache.

The writer who solicited himself at night, dressed as a Siren;
The poet who frequented the notorious side of the park seeking the
company of strangers;
The artist who overdosed on drugs, having chocked on his own vomit a
hundred times;
The activist who got caught gambling;
People like me and you,
who were first idolized and then ridiculed.


Angela Patera was born in 1986 in Athens, Greece. She still resides there with her husband and her 7-year-old daughter. She is an ESL teacher. Having studied English Language and literature at the National University of Athens, she pursued a Master's Degree in Cultural Administration and Communication. Her main field of interest is the representations of womanhood, race, and disease in Culture (especially literature). Her stories have appeared in Oxford Magazine, Route 7 Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Rundelania, and other literary journals.