Stavros: A Good Shepherd

Betsy Joseph

June 8, 2025

The rocky climb to the Acropolis is long and steep,

the pitch of the return descent posing challenges of its own.

Even walking streets of cobblestone ancient and well-trodden,

uneven stones so worn they have become slick as marble,

even these surfaces can present unexpected danger

to the most confident of travelers.

Through our headsets Stavros shepherds us,

his voice even and strong.

Three small words our guide intones, three brief syllables:

“Mind your steps.”

They become our mantra, unwavering and reliable,

like a steady arm to lean on.

At times the mantra shifts to a warning:

“Mind your belongings”

  or, sometimes,             

“Mind your head”—

all good cautionary advice.

Never does Stavros instruct us to mind our p’s and q’s

for we are grown-ups and generally well-behaved.

In odd moments even now

his protective voice still echoes in my ear

from a place 2,500 years and 6,000 miles away,

and I further contemplate.

Surely if I continue to mind my steps,

then my steps will remind me.

I feel sure Stavros would agree.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems that have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.