Aimilianos Monai, Alexandrian, A.D. 628-655

Out of talk, appearance, and manners
I'll make an excellent suit of armour;
and in this way I'll face malicious people
without the slightest fear or weakness.

They'll try to injure me. But of those
who come near me none will know
where to find my wounds, my vulnerable places,
under the deceptions that will cover me.

So boasted Aimilianos Monai.
One wonders if he ever made that suit of armour.
Anyway, he didn't wear it long.
At the age of twenty-seven, he died in Sicily.

Constantine P. Cavafy

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