Day: 05/17/2024
Savages and Beasts
(Excerpt)
With those last words he made the sign of the cross with his hand and Anton stood up and left. He walked the silent hallway to its end where was the stairway. The same number of steps, a landing, and again the steps that led him to the basement. Dylan’s office was lighted. He walked to it; he knocked at the door.
“Come in” the old man’s voice invited him.
“Good morning, Mr. Dylan,” he said upon getting inside.
“Never mind Mr. Dylan, a simple Dylan is good enough,” the old man said and Anton smiled at his proposal.
“Here is my kingdom…as you see, nothing to report about it” Dylan said and extended his hand showing the space of his simple room. A small desk, plenty of clothes scattered around, two chairs, one behind the desk one in front of it, a small cabinet-closet, one bed, a bathroom, no icons, no Looking Unto Jesus just emptiness and silence which was the queen of the whole building. Dylan, a short, stocky guy, with light blonde hair and intelligent eyes, seemed depressed, stressed, worried, and uneasy, and he kept on rubbing his chin as if his thin beard was bothering him. A certain concern was evident in his eyes and the signs of a man tired of what one does, of a man almost tired of living, tired of the world he was in. And silence, invisible and unheard silence, the master of the ceremonies was spread over all the space like a huge shroud. The old man’s breathing sounded very loud against the silence of the room and it came in irregular gasps.
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Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume IV
Excerpt XLIX
We thought that it was time; we stood under the arch
and shook the fluff off our shoulders. Involvement, not
observance, John said.
Decision doesn’t mean action, Alexander said. Correct,
correct, we agreed.
We remained with one leg forward to annul the turning
back. Convicts
in big trucks passed by. We groped the wrist of our hand.
The marks weren’t visible. We pulled our sleeves a little
higher.
Vangelis put one of his legs on the shoe shiner’s stand;
he had obviously shined his shoes, to climb up one more
step where the road turns
a bit uphill with iron gates leading to gardens and terraces.
Peter
slowly counted the collection coins with an obviously
neutral expression.
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Hellenic Canadian Literature 