Category: Uncategorized

Jazz with Ella

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excerpt

Was he not getting on this very plane to Moscow looking like one of the foreign tourists and wearing a handsome leather jacket? On the other hand, what if they had tricked him into doing something illegal? The authorities could revoke all his travel privileges. Normally, he wouldn’t have any qualms about sidestepping the authorities but it was just so important that he go to Moscow right now.
All these thoughts and more passed through Sergei Ivanovich’s brain as the group from Canada traipsed slowly across the tarmac.
★
“The first thing I’m doing when we reach the hotel is to find a telegraph office and send a message to Volodya,” said Jennifer, seated behind David and Maria on the tour bus, her chin hanging over the headrest. The teacher-student wall had completely crumbled; they were her friends. She was grateful for their help.
“I thought you’d already done that,” answered David. Maria’s head was nodding, more concerned with sleep than planning. “You mean you didn’t wire him from Kazan?”
“No. You saw how Chopyk dogged us the whole time, plus I couldn’t confirm anything. What if, all of a sudden, they’d decided to take us out of the country through Kiev instead of Moscow? You know there’s no logic to the itinerary.”
“It’s always Moscow. I told you that,” David said. “We’re here for less than two days. That’s not long enough to get Volodya from Leningrad and up to speed.”
“There’s the rest of today…”
“Oh, no, not at all,” interrupted Maria suddenly, her eyes still closed. “According to Natasha we have an action-packed evening ahead.” She looked around quickly as if expecting their tour guide to hear her name. But while the group had been given a late lunch in the airport dining room, Natasha had gone on ahead to make arrangements and would meet them at the hotel. “After check-in, we’re to squeeze in dinner and some of us have tickets for the ballet. And remember when we were in Moscow last time you said that the juniors would be having a last lesson here and maybe taking a guided tour of St. Basil’s Cathedral?”
David’s grin waned. Jennifer sighed.There was another thought nagging at her.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562892

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763246

Water in the Wilderness

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excerpt

He stroked her cheek. “Rachael’s in the hospital here. She has hypothermia and frostbite but she’ll be okay.” He took a deep breath. “We brought Bobby and Ronald here, but they had to be transferred to Calgary.”
“Why? Morley, tell me. Is Bobby …?”
He squeezed her arm. “Bobby’s very sick. He … he was unconscious when we found him. It’s too soon to tell ….” Morley buried his face in her shoulder, and when he raised his head, Tyne could see tears coursing down his cheeks through the stubble of his beard. He swallowed hard and wiped a hand over his face. “I’m sorry, Tyne, I was going to be strong for you. We have to believe he’s going to be all right.”
Tyne reached over to touch his cheek. When she had swallowed her own tears, she said, “Where did you find them?”
“Ronald had made it to Matt McDonald’s farm, but he’d just got as far as the outbuildings when he collapsed. Matt was going to the barn after the wind died down, and that’s when he found him. He was able to tell Matt that Rachael and Bobby were in a granary, and he begged him to hurry and get them.”
Morley paused and looked down as if trying to collect his thoughts and get control of his emotions. “Matt guessed the granary was his own, not very far away. He called me, and I put the word out. Several of us were just getting ready to go out and search again. When we found them in that building, I thought … I thought ….” He sniffed and took a deep breath. “They were holding each other, and Rachael woke up and saw me, and she smiled at first, then started to cry, and she told me to look after Bobby. But he wouldn’t wake up.” Morley put his head down and sobbed.
Tyne wanted to hold him and comfort him, but somehow she couldn’t seem to lift herself off the bed. Her tears flowed freely with his.
Morley reached into his pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his face. “I called the hospital from Matt’s place to tell you we’d found them, but Inge said you were in surgery.”
Tyne gave him a puzzled look. “No, why would she say that? We didn’t have any more cases.” Then suddenly, she knew.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562884

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

Tasos Livaditis – Poems, Volume II

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Long-listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards

https://griffinpoetryprize.com/press/2023-longlist-announcement/

HOWEVER, since something unusual always occurred
around me I never asked for anything more since when
we opened the door at dusk we oen saw someone to pass
holding the unusual in such a simple way that when the
carriage men were drinking, it stood lightly behind them
(even if the Bible doesn’t refer to it) thus, next morning
at seven o’clock, as it was its habit, the dead man came
down and started working in the old carpentry shop
only that now we had to cry in a low tone voice
since he was so thin and sometimes we said to him
“you’re so beautiful” although he always kept
his promise: humble people, of whom nothing will
ever be said as this story continues.

https://draft2digital.com/book/4051627

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763564

Orange

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Blood
Most people don’t understand
whether the fire rises
from behind the mountain or
is shot out of the pistol’s barrel
it always burns you.
For this, so many of our dreams
remained unrealized and
inexplicable happiness was laid
in the display window
of the department store as
loneliness was again eulogized
in churches,
but as the years went by
the man with the severed arm,
wrote on other people’s
discoloured walls,
one-word written
with fiery red letters:
blood, blood, blood.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3746001#print

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

Savages and Beasts

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excerpt

and around her nipple; then quite unexpectedly he squeezed her
right nipple a bit, enough to make her squirm of pain and desire.
Suddenly his face darkened, he had the sensation of defeat;
he was losing something he had considered his and only his:
Mary’s body disturbed his mind; was he truly never to enjoy it
again? His eyebrows almost joined creating a deep concern on
the upper part of his face. He stopped arousing her with his hand
and turning he looked deep in Gladys’ eyes.
“What’s going on between them?” He asked.
Sister Gladys was taken aback, her face tightened, why the
image of Mary had to suddenly got between them, she wondered,
but after a thoughtful moment she replied.
“Nothing serious as far as I know.”
“They sure looked serious to me.”
“Just forget of them, ok? They are young and they deserve
to have an interest in one another,” Gladys said to him.
“Somehow I felt that Mary wouldn’t be a good fit in the
School. She is so” he hesitated to use any word, “so pure,” he
added.
“Pure? Ha, what purity did you find in her? Believe me
she can choke the rabbit as they saying goes,” Sister Gladys said
spitefully.
“You think they have slept together?” His insistence irritated
Sister Gladys.
“Stop talking about her, ok?”
Suddenly his face brightened again as if the half-moon
shone a special joyous glint on him taking away the paleness and
leaving behind a light gleam and a smile on his lips.
“Yes, let us play our game, come, come Gladys,” he said
and got up. He took a table napkin from her drawer, folded it,
made a blindfold and tightened it around her eyes.

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

Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume VI

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The Lift Operator

And he has a silent deceitfulness in his goodness; he
waits until the light gets tired in its width, to lean and
disclose his secret,
which he will make his, like he did with the secret
of the shadow and its root, of the water and the stone.
Then, embarrassed, he stops in front of the kiosk
of the crippled man to buy a newspaper and insists
to read it with such naturalness, trying to wedge
himself between the opposing titles or between
the fine printed letters that run like ants, poke holes in
and nest in the newspaper as if it is their earth homes.
However, a bird winks at him, and he responds,
a stray dog wags its tail in front of him,
a green leaf shows all its veins to him, and
he smiles

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763785

Nikos Engonopoulos – Poems

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…this song somehow produces sadness
to the person who reads it
and to the one who hears it
though we never hid it from anyone:
if the most beautiful songs
are naturally the saddest
songs written
for the moons
exception of the rule,
write it down,
are the songs written
close to a cataract
and others sung
on a sinking ship
while the siren with the dishevelled
hair accompanies it
and others sang
by a Kore with a harp
under the plucked statue
of an old goddess
and flooded
by the moons
close the blinds and listen to the passerby
the steps you hear
is the rising moon
think of the sea and go to sleep
think of lust and wake up
undo her hair
and flood it
with moons…

https://draft2digital.com/book/3744799

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763734

Poodie James

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excerpt

couldn’t discuss a pending case and that there’s no pending case to
discuss. Typical Williams. It might even be true. Later, the chief
went down to the train wreck and talked with the Great Northern
inspector. That doesn’t mean there’s a connection.”
Winifred searched her memory of Angie Karn’s call.
“I told you that George Pearson’s name came up the other day.”
“I gave him a call,” Sonny said. “After it became obvious that I
knew about his meeting with the mayor, he told me that he agreed
to appear at the hearing. When I asked him what he knew about
Poodie James, he said that Poodie taught his daughter to swim and
is fond of him. Cute. I pressed him about whether Torgerson is
taking direct action against Poodie. I don’t think he knows.”
“We have run a story—only an announcement, really—about
the fact that the council will call a hearing, “ Winifred said. “It’s
probably time to have someone do a backgrounder on hobos in the
valley. The problem, of course, is that if we do, it gives credibility
to Torgerson’s strange little crusade.”
“Nonetheless,” Sonny said, “he’s pursuing it, the council is
involved, the story is alive. It’s news, Mother.”
“Oh, I know it. What an irritating man this Torgerson is. Keep
me up to date.”
Chief Darwin Spanger walked slowly between rows of trees in
his father’s orchard, pausing now and then to examine a cluster of
apples, clear a ditch, adjust a prop. At the orchard’s edge he came
into the last of the day’s sunlight pouring through the notch in the
saddle shaped rock formation at the top of the western ridge that
cradled the valley. Chill air sliding down the slopes met the
warmth rising off the orchard, and the leaves whispered their evening
song. The sun bathed Darwin’s face. He closed his eyes. His
mind began to clear itself of Torgerson, Poodie James, the train
wreck, the long, long day. When he looked up, he saw three figures
making their way along the shale fall below the rock, moving in
and out of light and shadow. Dan, the yellow Lab, took a seat
beside him, ears alert to the hikers’ laughter trickling down the
foothill. Darwin scratched the old dog behind the ears, thinking of…

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562868

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W7SHCMV

HEAR ME OUT

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excerpt

T-Shirt
Wonder do people die of love? And if “yes” do they go to hell where the devils look like you? I wish I could die this very moment. Now!
Just to meet you; to hear your voice whisper my punishment in my ear.
In fact my life is a hell without you…as it was when we were together.
And since I’ve died of love, then to hell, my love, as long as you will be there too.
I wear your t-shirt. The one you left behind when you gathered your cloths because it was unwashed. And when it was cleaned you weren’t here anymore.
It’s left behind, with so other, older t-shirts that keep me company at night, they wrap and warm up my body.
It was difficult for me to explain to the girl who ironed them that they were mine, although bigger size and she shouldn’t put them away in your drawer.
These t-shirts are my property.
Each of them is sewed together with a piece of my soul.
They the “lessons” I have paid for the life I have lived up to now.
When we used to sleep, you were my clot. I needed wear nothing else.
Now, I wear the t-shirts, I wrap myself in my comforter and sleep in my bed diagonally.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562946

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763807

Fury of the Wind

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excerpt

She gripped the covers and stared at the curtains
moving in the breeze from the open window. The wailing, howling
cry continued without letup – Margaret’s laughter from her dream.
But this eerie sound was not laughter, and it was interspersed by
occasional yelps like those of a dog in anguish.
Recognition dawned suddenly. “Coyotes,” Sarah said aloud. The
sound of her own voice calmed her.
She lay back against the pillows and pulled the sheet up to her
chin. When the howling stopped she whispered derisively into the
sudden silence, “Sarah Roberts, coward.” O
Sarah next awakened to the tantalizing aroma of bacon and coffee.
When she opened her eyes she could see light streaming in through
a gap in the curtains. She lay still, wondering how to face Ben with
the news that she wouldn’t marry him. Breaking her promise was
aberrant to her. And she certainly had promised to marry him.
Otherwise, why was she here alone with him in this house, on this
barren prairie a thousand miles from anything familiar?
Finally, hunger pangs overcame the pangs of anxiety. She got up
and quickly dressed in slacks and a light blouse. She felt annoyed
with herself that she hadn’t thought to bring water into the room
the night before so that she could, at the very least, have splashed
her face and washed her hands. In the house in Tillsonburg she
used to rise early enough to bathe before her mother awoke and
required attention.
When she stepped into the kitchen she saw Ben standing at the
stove. Grease sizzled in a frying pan into which he was breaking
eggs. He looked up briefly when she said, “Good morning, Ben,”
and nodded his head in response.
She dipped water from the stove reservoir into a basin and carried
it to a wash stand in the corner of the room.
“Want some bacon and eggs?”
Sarah half turned. “Yes, please, I would. I’m very hungry this
morning.”
“No wonder,” he muttered, “after the amount you ate last night.”
She glanced at him quickly, childishly grateful that he had noticed
even this much about her. But, as she dried her face …

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073530