excerpt

The two RCMP officers went down to the basement and knocking
at the laundry door they entered just to find Anton busy
with his washers and driers; heat that was flowing down from
the machines onto the floor and spreading in the space of the
laundry room gave the atmosphere of cosiness and relaxation.
Constable Johnson greeted Anton to which the caretaker replied
in kind. The sergeant asked a few questions about the night of
the murder and learning that Anton was at his place when the
abominable thing happened he also asked about the two missing
kids to which he received the satisfactory answer of nothing
and then he left with his constable only to go to the kitchen and
confront George, the Cretan cook who couldn’t help him any
more than Anton.
“Have you noticed any of your kitchen knives missing?”
sergeant Ryan asked the cook.
“No I haven’t but let me check it won’t take too long,”
he turned and perused his knives only to realize that one cutting
knife was missing, “yes, one is missing, a cutting knife, one
like this one,” he said and taking another cutting knife from his
drawer he pointed it to the cops.
The constable asked him to put down the knife to which
George obeyed uninterestingly enough; the constable took the
knife and examined it carefully, showing to his superior that
perhaps it was time for him to step up one step in the ladder of
seniority or even perhaps become a detective. His superior took
the knife too and after examining it he put it on the counter
again.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763602

seventeen
Half of the planet’s nations
on the line of fire
all others
the opposite targets
the conflagrated Mother
looks at the white doves
International Agreement
each rifle explodes
as soon as it shoots a target
Man — the beginning of the End
my avatar is lying dead

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676370X

In 200 B.C.
“Alexander, son of Philip and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians—”
We can very well imagine
that in Sparta, they were completely indifferent
to this inscription, “except the Lacedaemonians”.
But of course. The Spartans were not
to be led and ordered
like valuable servants. Besides
a Panhellenic campaign without
a Spartan king as their leader
wouldn’t appear really prestigious.
Ah, definitely, “except the Lacedaemonians”.
That’s one point of view. Understandable.
Therefore, to Granicus, without the Lacedaemonians,
and then to Issus; and in the decisive battle,
where the formidable army of the Persians
gathered at Arbela were swept away:
the army that set out for a victory at Arbela was destroyed.
And from this marvellous Panhellenic campaign,
the victorious, the splendorous,
the most famous, glorified,
as no other has been glorified,
the incomparable: we were born;
the great, new Hellenic world.
We, the Alexandrians, the Antiochians,
the Seleucids, and the innumerable other
Greeks of Egypt and Syria, and those in Media,
and in Persia, and so many others.
With our extended dominions,
with the variety of our policies and thoughtful adaptations.
With our Common Hellenic Language
that we carried deep into Bactria, as far as the Indians.
Are we to speak of the Lacedaemonians now?

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562856

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763823

The Judges
‘She’s a lawless woman’
judge number one said
‘firstly, she has no wedding band’
accused judge number two
emphatically stroking his gray hairdo
‘she has neither title of ownership
nor a mark on her thigh’
judges three and four, who
were twins, said at the same time and
fluffed their black robes
as if ready to fly.
‘She sells her body and
in the same way her soul’
judge number five coughed
he suffered from stomach aches.
‘And the worst: she’s a poetess’
the sixth judge declared
his double chin trembled in fear
‘you know, like those who foresee
future disasters or
put their heads in an oven or
travel on the Orient Express
drinking tea in inexistent cups.’
She listened to them reading their lips
sequence of their words never reached her ears,
she only heard the walk of the tortoise
running to catch the rabbit or
the sound of a blossoming rose.
Then with a knife she severed her left breast and
like an orange she offered it to the judges.
‘My name is Antigony,
she cried out with courage,
and this is the way I love.’

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562908

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPRGYMQ