11438 - Chameleon’s myth

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Angeliki Papadopoulou

Once upon a time there was a chameleon.
Everyone believed that he was young.
But he had lived for one thousand years.
But noone believed it.
Even when he was showing his
genealogical tree.
Because noone could see
something that is invisible.
He had crossed the centuries
like the immortals
but he was mortal.
Each time that he looked at
a new color
he changed so that he looks like it
and not to be afraid.
So, he looked like everything,
but nothing was like him.
The same goes for the humans
but they were rare those who could realize it.
Only with books he could talk.
Because they remained with him
due to the dead writers.
While the alive were quickly dying
inside the society without traces.
One day he found one tower of glass
and immediately searched for a fireplace
but there wasn’t
and he left.
Then he met a library
on a bridge
on the edge of the sky
and the sea
and decided
to take its color
so he became a code
and palimpsests
so that he won’t forget
the Humanity
and Time.