Ancestral Sin
He noticed the ripen lust
stitched onto the wings of the swallow
then a band of rays
dissolved in the edge of the garden with the asphodels.
He laid his head onto his hands
the first man, and asked
why?
Archive for February, 2026
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Values
The moto was to teach them
values of fast food
flashy commercials on tv screens
beer and baseball
America’s past time
moto was to make them believe
in their values
of each pistol carrying citizen
gleaming when one can shoot
the pizza delivery man for being late
and the blind beggar
walking peacefully in the park
moto was to teach them values
screen filled with flashy commercials
of naked women
they needed to civilize
the brutes who lived
in that faraway land
Mr Stratis Thalassinos Describes a Man
I
But what happened to this man?
All afternoon (yesterday and day before yesterday and today)
he’s been sitting with eyes fixated on the flame
he stumbled on me in the night as he descended the stairs
and said to me:
‘The body dies the water clouds the soul
hesitates
and the wind forgets, always forgets
but the flame never changes.’
He even said to me:
‘You know I love a woman who is gone perhaps to the underworld
this isn’t the reason that I am so destitute
I try to hang onto this flame
because it never changes.’
He then narrated the story of his life.
Swamped
Posted: 06/02/2026 by vequinox in LiteratureTags: Book Review, books, Fiction, Literature, love-story, manipulation, penny-stocks, shady-promoters, short-selling, short-story, vse, writing
excerpt
“How big is the issue?”
“As big as I want to make it,” Frankie said, “Just tell me how many
you’d like.”
“Okay then, let’s say half a million to three quarters?”
“You got them. Think it over, decide on the number, and talk to
the office tomorrow. I’ll put the word in for you.”
“Thanks a lot, Frankie.”
“Have a good walk, Eteo. You too, Ariana.”
They shook hands again, and Frankie strode off in the direction
of Ambleside.
“That was one of the biggest movers and shakers on the Vancouver
Stock Exchange.” Eteo said to Ariana as they started toward 22nd
street, “and a very good man too. He has a knack for anticipating the
trends in the market and making the right moves ahead of time. He’s
always been ahead of the curve, and he’s made big bucks, as you can
imagine. I admire his personality, his charisma, as much as I do his
success. If anyone ever deserved to get rich, it’s Frankie.”
Ariana took his hand and they walked along the beautiful seawall.
Light waves splashed against the rocks, creating a heavenly
music only expert ears were tuned to, the ears of people who paid attention
to everything in their environment. Most people were too
preoccupied with themselves and rarely allowed the fine details of
the world around them to disturb their self-regard.
Suddenly a group of seagulls began their strange raucous cawing,
fighting over a big starfish that hung from the beak of one of them
while two others chased it as if demanding to slice the thing into
pieces they could all share. Since they didn’t have forks and knives,
they could only chase after their lucky colleague, diving and turning
in every possible direction as the three gulls painted the horizon with
a mixture of shapes, circles, lines, and contours even the most gifted
painter could scarcely have recreated.
Eteo and Ariana stopped for a while and followed the gulls with
their eyes until they had flown too far away to be visible anymore. At
the 22nd Street dock, they walked as usual right out to the end. The
view, deeply familiar yet fresh every time, spread itself out before
them. They gazed at the small boats speeding across the waves…
MY LOVE FOR THE HOMELAND
It isn’t a migrating bird that daily flits by,
tearing the clouds as it flies in the wind.
It’s neither ivy engulfing the rock with its branches
nor is it the lightning that flashes and fades.
It isn’t the sea that heedless of earthquake roars for you,
my homeland, but your destruction I feel in my viscera
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 