Victor’s March
Among decapitated houses
resembling toothless sculls
we marched in their towns
tumbled buildings devastated
by smart bombs outsmarting
thoughtful animals
and we sang marching paeans
band played freedom songs
for the sarcastically smiling youths
who had implanted deep in their souls
the plan for revenge, youths
who in groups of three or four
planned their act of defiance
youths who had dreams
of killing us by the thousands
shoeless youths with grand dreams
that one day they’d become jihadists

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1771713208

Walls
Without much thought, without pity, without shame
They’ve built these high, thick walls around me.
And now I sit here in despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate consumes my mind;
because I had so many things to do outside.
Ah, why didn’t I notice when they built the walls?
But I never heard the builders, or any sound at all.
Imperceptibly, they shut me off from the world.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1723961833

Excerpt

A Woman
There was no visible threat in the mountains, only the
unnerving shrieks of birds, howling of monkeys and cawing of
chachalacas, and the occasional roar of jaguars and cougars. Far to
the north, tiny black dots described spirals in the sky—vultures. I
was weary from the waiting, and my head snapped at any sound or
flicker of movement.
The mountains were a deep green. The forest appeared
impenetrable. As we climbed, the searing heat dissipated. Huge
rubber trees, mahogany and West Indian cedars gave much needed
shade during the day. Abundant lianas hung from their boughs, and
climbing plants—many thorny—crept up any vertical thing that
could help them reach the light. Often they crawled along the
ground, creating a tangle that could trip any man.
My hands had browned since I left Spain. My toes were reddened
and thick, grazed by stones and swollen from the chigoes that had
settled between my skin and nails.
A collective, unspoken effort to keep calm had come over us. For
the conquistadors, this was natural. Many of them had been chasing,
or been chased by, Indians for a good part of their lives, and, before
that, they had trampled much of the world in a variety of battles:
against the French, the Berbers, the Turks, the Pope. I supposed that
when you find yourself in constant danger, you begin to disregard it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073522

n Memoriam
You were the holy silence
white as rice
though the shivering leave
always returns
you took the whirl
centrifugal soul
that leaves us
in a lonely grief.
When night comes I gaze in the foliage
the shut eyes of our friends

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096TTS37J

At the Restaurant
You walked by me
sweet breeze of flowing hair
light scent of your aroma
bounced between our eyes
that met mid-way, you saw me
clinking to my mate
before I tasted my wine and
wanting to claim part
of that charm, you crossed
your legs almost indifferently
under the table to reveal the line
that controls the eyes of men
I smiled absentmindedly
towards you and
you pretended you didn’t
notice though almost innocently
you played the game of Eros and
when the nightmare
will wake you up
you’ll take a deep breath and
smiling, you will think:
‘I provoked the glance
of that middle-aged man’s
didn’t I?’

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763750

Moonlight Sonata

Τούτο το σπίτι με πνίγει. Μάλιστα η κουζίνα
είναι σαν το βυθό της θάλασσας.Τα μπρίκια κρεμασμένα γυαλίζουν
σα στρογγυλά, μεγάλα μάτια απίθανων ψαριών,
τα πιάτα σαλεύουν αργά σαν τις μέδουσες,
φύκια κι όστρακα πιάνονται στα μαλλιά μου – δεν μπορώ να 
τα ξεκολλήσω ύστερα,
δεν μπορώ ν’ ανέβω πάλι στην επιφάνεια –
ο δίσκος μου πέφτει απ’ τα χέρια άηχος, – σωριάζομαι
και βλέπω τις φυσαλίδες απ’ την ανάσα μου ν’ ανεβαίνουν,
ν’ ανεβαίνουν
και προσπαθώ να διασκεδάσω κοιτάζοντές τες
κι αναρωτιέμαι τι θα λέει αν κάποιος βρίσκεται από πάνω και 
βλέπει αυτές τις φυσαλίδες,
τάχα πως πνίγεται κάποιος ή πως ένας δύτης ανιχνεύει τους βυθούς;

This house suffocates me Especially the kitchen which is

like a sea bottom The hanging coffeepots glitter

like round large eyes of exquisite fishes

the plates move slowly like jellyfish

seaweed and shells clutch at my hair – I can’t unstuck

           them any longer

I can’t rise up to the surface again –

the platter falls off my hands soundless – I slump

and see bubbles from my breath rising

           and rising

and I try to have fun watching them

and I wonder what one standing above could say seeing

           these bubbles

perhaps that someone has drown or that a diver explores the sea

floor?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763076