Stairway
He was climbing up the stairs. Bit by bit the up and
the down was mixed up in his tiredness, they assumed
the same meaning, no meaning, just one point
of a swirling wheel. And he, motionless, tied to the wheel,
with the sense that he perhaps travels, he feels the air
combing his hair backward, observing his comrades,
successfully disguised into busy sailors, oaring invisible oars,
sealing their ears with wax, while the Sirens had already died
at least three thousand years ago.
V
Who will answer to our cry?
Who’s left to share our vertigo?
The doors close one by one.
Yet people wait for us
in the streets of the north
in crevices with the errorless rifles
in neighborhoods that don’t kneel;
people with hoping faces
with vigilant eyes wait for us
to touch the sky
with these wounded hands of slavery
Don Quixote
Don Quixote marches ahead gazing the edge
of his spear where he hangs his vision like a flag
short sighted visionary with but one tear
to humanly accept each curse and insult.
He stumbles onto the logic and staffs of others
ridiculously whipped mid of the road he crawls
Sancho said I told you so but the ones with great
plans remain calm and cry out Sancho my horse.
Thus if Cervantes wishes it I saw them
in their painless lives the knights of the dream
mounting their horses lamely and breathing bitterness
in tears ready to abandon the previous deeds
and I saw them returning — beautiful yet insane
archons who fought for inexistent kingdoms
and flowing like the armoured garment of the knight
they open their wound to show it to the sun.
excerpt
you’re barking up at the wrong tree. We’ll get this company with or without
you; it’s just a matter of whether you want to have a job or not. It’s a matter of
whether you want to be in the winners’ circle or the losers. You’re not the one who
can decide yes or no, I am.”
Robert Major gets hot all of a sudden. He sips his wine and he looks at
Peter, who turns away. He turns to Hakim, who is smiling and firm in his
composure. Peter is not Robert’s refuge at this moment and Robert feels that.
Who is this Iraqi asshole saying these words to him?He wonders and feels the
need to get up and run. Since when do these Iraqis come here and tell us what
to do and how to run our companies? Questions go through his mind and he
cannot find a way to settle down. Yet he knows there’s so much truth to
Hakim’s words that he just has to go along with him.
“Okay then, you bright stars, what’s expected of me?”
“Just one task, Robert, just one. But you have to promise that you’ll do your
best,” Hakim says.
“Okay, I promise. What is it?”
“You talk to your pal, Anthony, and get him to come along. That way we take
charge in a week’s time.We call a director’s meeting and effect the first change.After
that, the rest will fall into place piece by piece; and you may get an extra block of
shares in an option at the first setting coming right after the meeting, or even at the
same meeting.Not a word to anyone, though. I’d like us to announce a financing the
day after the meeting and lock it in at the current market price, okay?”
“So, you need me to deliver Anthony as well. What else is there for me?”
“A step up, perhaps even two steps possibly Vice-president of operations, but
don’t promise Anthony anything.”
“Who is getting Lorne’s job, you?” Robert asks, looking at Hakim, who smiles,
and in a cold voice, says, “No, Iwon’t, Peterwill.”This even takes Peter by surprise.
Peter knows Hakim has promised him the company, but he didn’t expect
him to give him the reins. He expected Hakim to take the top job and to see
himself elevated to a vice-presidency; this new idea changes things, so what
position is Hakim taking?
“We’ll talk about these things in detail the next time we meet Robert. You
make sure we have Anthony along. You have to go at it quickly. I’d like you to
have something for me by tomorrow or the next day?” Hakim says.
“It can be done. Leave it with me.”
When all three walk back to the office together, Lorne sees them, stops them
on their way into the office and asks, “Hey, hello guys, what’s going on?”
“Nothing, Lorne.” “We had lunch at Mario’s and a couple of drinks” Hakim
says with a laugh.
Hellenic Canadian Literature 