Swamped

Excerpt

On a Wednesday morning, a few days after his afternoon with Frances, Mario called to inform Eteo that the prospectus for Nostra Ventures had been filed and that they should hear from the regulators in three to four weeks. Eteo congratulated Mario for the speedy job he had done, and around noon, Mitch arrived with an equally positive update on the prospectus papers for Alexa Ventures. These were ready, too, and Mitch was taking them personally to the corporate guy upstairs.

Eteo called Cameron and asked him to take care of the new filing as soon as it came in, which he promised to do. A few colleagues from the back office and accounting called Eteo to ask if they could have some shares in Nostra Ventures. Susan was one of them, and Eteo promised a thousand shares to each. He advised them to contact their respective brokers, who would be the ones to write the actual orders. Then he put aside shares for Frances, as he had promised her, and another fifty thousand for John, the head trader, for allocating to a few of his buddies. Finally he reserved ten thousand shares for each of the dozen junior brokers Bradley had suggested to him.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Liquid Labyrinth

a hair on the menu
hajszál az étlapon
searching for a dyed pink hair I am in a quest
like a courtesan in a bed of flowers
my gaze slips to your swollen breasts
I need you only for a few fleeting hours

  • you hide yet I can see your smile rare
    my starry eyes lustfully long for fresh fruit value
    my greedy heart forced me to the air
    to order love from the menu
    my paid embrace diminished by dawn I knew
    intentions bloom among the leaves’ sway
    I cannot master the art of beginning anew
    but I cannot have a kiss any other way
    in my limbs fireworks of adventure spark
    for a few brief hours you’re my tenement
    I’ve ruined it – what can I do without remark
    my opinion is pennyworth it’s evident
    the generosity of the crater of your thighs’ compassion
    ennobles the thirsty emotion
    as I fund your insatiable passion
    our bodies collapse into each other frozen
    I’m walled up in your hairbreadth
    for I became the ashes of your firing squad
    in the fiery twilight to the artistic depth
    my pagan blood was given by the finest god

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763718

He Rode Tall

Excerpt

Especially this morning as he stumbled to
the toilet, dropped to his knees, and wretched his guts out. For
maybe ten or twenty minutes Joel, continued to engage in the ritual
of dry heaves. And every time he thought it was over, because
he needed to get to his office, his entire body would be overcome
by yet another compelling desire to puke and he would once
again gag into the toilet. Once the heaves subsided, Joel was
wasted of whatever strength he might have. The coolness of the
porcelain toilet bowl on his forehead was a comforting feeling as
he rested to regain his strength to rise. Eventually, knowing that
he just could not afford to be late again, Joel rose, brushed his
teeth, and shaved. Lately, Joel had taken to simply using the
razor every other day. But looking at himself in the mirror this
morning, Joel realized that it had probably been three and maybe
even four days since his face had been visited by the razor. Knowing
that with his hands shaking as they were and realizing that he
was going to be late again, Joel opted to quickly shave his upper
lip and race to the office. A shower would have been nice. No, a
shower would have been wonderful, but he couldn’t afford many
more reprimands from the office manager, Mr. Lee, for being late.
Even if he was the best damn engineer on the waterfront, Joel was
pushing his luck.
After throwing his old rumpled suit on, Joel rushed down the
stairs to the teeming street below where he quickly hailed a cab and
twenty minutes later rushed into the offices of Empire Engineering
Works. Empire was one of those harbor-based engineering firms
that specialized in all kinds of projects on the Hong Kong waterfront.
Joel had been with Empire for many years now, including
postings at the home office in London and an endless string of
assignments around the globe that usually lasted anywhere from
twelve to twenty-four months. He had actually spent nearly three
years at one posting in Amsterdam, but that was only because of
overlapping projects, and once the first project, a new dry dock facility,
was completed, he was asked to finish up a project with another
team of engineers who were designing a new pier for the ferry fleet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

Αλήτις Τσαλαχούρη, Δύο ποιήματα