On a Verse by Seferis
We’re dying! Our gods are dying
The hours carry our breasts confused
by the sin of forgetfulness
oh, let the myrrh-carrying women sprinkle
memory over our silence and grave
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763408
Sundown
Last reflection of the sun rays
on the leaves of the oleander
and onto the moist rock that stands
guard opposite the sea’s slow movement
life declares its benevolence
transcending earth with its songs
before the night conquers
the cracks of hours
and the door shuts till morning
stay up, I’ll tell you
taste the bloom of your emotions
eternal moments
that only last a short while
All Things Pass
We forgot our heroic argument with the Eumenides
we fell asleep they took us for dead and they flew away
shouting
“Yiou! Yiou! Pououou…pax!”
cursing the gods who protect us.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096TTS37J
excerpt
Chapter XII
A few more days went by with Platinum Properties continuing to do
well, up-ticking every day, trading lots of shares in every session, and
reaching the low two dollar level. Eteo kept a steady eye on it, and
although he took some profit for a few clients, he didn’t advise any
of them to sell everything they had. Golden Veins remained steady
around 60 cents, but there were regular purchase orders and Eteo encouraged
his clients to just go, which most agreed to do. Eteo sold
his stock slowly, always using a different firm than his own to keep
Richard off his back. Meanwhile he kept on buying shares of
Wheaton, which was steady around the dollar mark. He also fed the
market with the real estate deal that had always been on the loss side,
advising his clients to take the loss and invest their funds in other
things and suggesting Wheaton in particular, a good company and
with a good group behind it, as he assured them.
He met Ariana daily for their seawall walk and felt closer and
closer to her as each day passed. He made his feelings clear to her
every time they were together, either during their walk or when they
had supper together or when they made passionate love. Eteo told
her about his invitation to the football game and asked her to come
with them.
TENDRIL
To the maple tree that gazes down on it
and shelters it with shade
at evening and at dawn
the flowery clematis says:
“Oh, proud tree, whose leaves and
branches rustle in the wind,
do you suppose this earth’s too small?
Do you imagine that you fit among the stars and clouds?
Water flows tirelessly by your roots
while you suckle on the mist
and you, the beast, feel jealous of me
because I suckle on the moistened bit?
What do you want of me, my maple tree?
Keep your shade away from me.
I am so small my flowers freeze.
Let the sun come and warm them.”
“My little blonde tendril, why are you afraid of me?
You always want to crawl alone
and stay alone the whole night long
and for your pillow to have the earth and stone.
Let your flowers match my strength,
become a queen and I your throne,
steady yourself upon my body
and all flowers will envy you in my embrace.”
The wild maple fooled the clematis
and amid its branches it consumed it.
Pity that you traded your blonde virginity
for only a little height more.
excerpt
…to encounter. Turning on the lights in the kitchen, he was met
by Tanya. “Cougar!” she yelled. Joel reached for the rifle in the
hallway closet—the cougar may be after his horses. Flying out
the door with his rifle in hand and Tanya racing behind him,
Joel almost collided in the dark with Harry. “Back in the hills!”
Harry yelled as they climbed into the half-ton and hurled
toward the pasture. Reaching the fence, Harry jumped out,
opened the gate for Joel to drive through and then jumped back
into the truck as Joel accelerated forward. Where to look? At
least there was almost a full moon in the sky so they had some
visibility at three o’clock in the morning.
Stopping for a moment, Joel turned off the motor to listen. All
he could hear was the pounding of hooves of the band of
broodmares and foals fleeing toward the safety of his truck.
Thank God, Joel thought; they could drive in this pasture with all
of its hills and gullies forever in the middle of the night and still
not find the herd. But here they were, the horses knew the three
people inside the truck were there to protect them.
Jumping from the truck, Joel and Harry each with a rifle in
hand and Tanya standing at their side were ready to guard the
mothers and their babies. Joel and Harry scanned what they
could see of the surrounding country in the deep darkness of the
night as Tanya tried to count the mares and foals the best she
could. Moving quietly through the nervous, milling horses she
twice came up with the same number. If her count was correct,
they were short one foal. Then as if to confirm her count, a bay
mare called out whinnies from the edge of the herd, but her whinnies
went unanswered.
With their adrenalin running high, none of them could sleep
so all three stood guard over the herd the remainder of the
night. Later, Tanya offered to go back to the ranch house and
make coffee, but Joel didn’t want her to be walking the hills
alone with a crazed cougar on the loose and Harry suggested
that it wasn’t a good idea to be without the headlights of the
truck just in case something else happened.
excerpt
…the flock of laying hens as they staked out their territory on the roosts
before darkness fell. The faint glow of sunset from the western sky
cast pale streamers of light among the shadows in the yard.
Tyne breathed in the aroma of honeysuckle from the early flowering
shrubs near the house. “It’s all so lovely,” she said quietly, “and I know
I should be at peace; but I’m not, Morley. I’m worried about Rachael.”
“About her being so close to Lyssa, I know. But this hippie thing
is only a phase the kids are going through. We had our own phase, I
suppose. Remember your bobby socks and saddle shoes?”
Tyne nudged him gently with her elbow. “Oh, Morley, that was entirely
different and you know it. This hippie craze is a whole new culture. They
may espouse peace and brotherhood but that, unfortunately, carries over
into free thinking as far as sex is concerned. It’s all wrong, Morley.”
“I know, hon, but we’ve done our best to teach Rachael our own
Christian values. She’s a smart girl, and we have to trust her to do
what’s right.”
Tyne nodded silently, then laid her head on Morley’s shoulder.
She looked up quickly when she heard Bobby’s shout and saw him
sprinting from the direction of the barn. He reached the porch in an
instant and stood, wide open eyes shining with excitement, his breath
coming in short gasps.
“Hey, Dad, you’d better come. Sunshine’s calving.”
Morley put his coffee cup on the table beside him and got to his
feet. “Hold on, Sport, nothing to get too excited about. She’s done
this many times before, you know.”
“Yeah, Dad, I know.” Bobby fairly bounced with impatience. “But
this is Sunshine we’re talking about, and she’s not young anymore.”
Morley smiled and laid his hand on Bobby’s shoulder as he passed
him on his way to the kitchen door. “She’ll be fine, son. We’ll stay
with her to make sure. Just let me go change my clothes.”
After they had hurried off in the direction of the barn, Tyne sat
for a few more minutes reflecting on the ten years about which they
had just spoken. Yes, it had been hard at first, but the blessings…
Ocean’s March
We won’t read what we wrote
We shall raise our eyes
yearning for the galaxy’s waterfall
behind the almond tree of a white cloud
lingering above the sea
The time without hours and
repentance has arrived again
Azure echo of the light water
foggy walk of fishermen on sand
children sleep in the boats
and Angels bathe in their sleep
Fragrance of grass and star fragrance
At a distance mountaintops vanish in the opulent sky
Our tired hands are sprinkled
with the new dew
and our hair scented with
the shadow of yesterday’s grief
Mother the world has no borders
excerpt
Why don’t you just look at what’s here?” His tone was gentle,
almost wheedling. Larry was a parfait gentil rogue.
I glanced at the square black chest, neatly chamfered and bolted, with reinforced
corners and a three-digit combination lock. A black box. A mystery
cube. So what?
“I bet you don’t know the right number for the lock . . .”
“The combination is—four-one-eight!” Larry winked melodramatically
and tapped the heap of papers. I fiddled with the little brass wheels.
The trunk was padded with blue velvet, like a saxophone case. Larry
removed trays and slid back compartments. With a flourish he produced a flat
black disc, about six inches across, polished to mirror-image lustre, a slightly
smaller transparent sphere, and a small brass skull.
Then he lifted out a dented metal box, also painted black, about the size of a
small portable TV. As he swung it round, I could see that it was indeed some
kind of monitor—perhaps an oscilloscope, or a very early television system, for
the dusty cathode tube was only a few inches wide. I grasped it by the brass
handles screwed to the top. It was incredibly heavy.
The paintwork on the metal casing was scorched and pitted, with a curious
radial symmetry in the halo of discoloration. A three-core cable with frayed
ends was wound tightly around the base, obscuring some calibrated dials and
controls on the front panel. I thought of the war surplus electronic gear I’d
hoarded as a kid, which Pauline had just thrown out, as no hypothetical child
of hers was going to toy with military/ industrial junk.
I peered at the slots and sockets at the side, squinted at the stylised
eye-in-triangle motif embossed on the back plate—and the hand-painted lettering:
AETHERIC VISUALISER MK I.
Then I studied the dials, marked off in decimal units with engraved lettering.
Vibrationary Rate: Wave Function: Field Strength. The toggle switches were
unlabelled. A blue button was mounted beneath them. Idly I pressed it, like a
five-year old pressing buttons in the Science Museum.The box gave a dead click.
“Probably full of clockwork and plastic explosive”, murmured Larry
serenely. “You can slide off the back plate and look at the gizzards if you like.”
I stared at bulbous dirt-furred housings and faint lettering: Do not attempt to
dismantle any component in this AV unit. For full operational function this AV unit
must be connected to an Astral Transformer Device- by qualified personnel only.
I waved away the proffered joint, trying to pin down my uncertainties.
“This is all to do with Scientology, right? It’s some kind of vintage E meter, to
erase the engrams of your childhood traumas.” A few Scientologists came …
Undertaker
It was still early in the day when the undertaker
received us yet since we’re a large crowd he promised
to embalm us one by one even if this would take years
and we knew he had to start from the very beginning,
with Adam and Eve and of course the serpent without
its poison fangs.
It was time just before jealousy appeared when life
regained its importance and the body’s salt
tied knots on the thread of compassion when
Übermensch advised us to start with a song to honour
the Trojan war heroes but the light in the street
was so bright our voices sounded strange. Then
He opened his arms and after kissing the forehead
of our first dead He said: ‘this corpse will be
the future Übermensch.’
Hellenic Canadian Literature 