Pedicure-Pedigree
“Beautiful... and what breed did you say it was?” Magda asked, snorting a bit and
without lifting her eyes from what she was doing.
“Pekingese, my dear, Pekingese breed,” Diana stressed the words on purpose and
let her right foot rest on Magda's palm, who was rubbing it patiently while dipping it
into hot water.
When the brownish dog understood that they were talking about it, goggled its eyes
even more, proudly projected its exognathia and looked balefully at the basin. Then it
lowered its head, sniffed it and jerked its face disgusted. Magda was rubbing the
furrowed heels of her client with a special pumice and at the same time she was
looking alternatively with the corner of her eye at the fat chords of her veins in her
calves, which were about to burst any moment now from the heavy weight and fill the
basin with their blue juice trickling down her legs, and the furry whirligig huffing like a
bellows and filling with saliva whatever it could find, scattering hair and dust all over
the place. She was allergic to animals and she had told her so. However, every
twenty days, since Diana was a regular client, the same scene took place with the
insensitive lady carrying the small furry devil with her to torture her, even though she
knew her problem. And now her nose was itching unbearably, but since her hands
were covered in soap it was impossible for her to scratch. She tried to think of
something else, she remembered an article she had read on Sunday “Postman”
about buddhists who during their meditation, nothing and nobody can distract their
attention. She took the small bevel and started removing the unnecessary calluses,
while sighs of relief could be heard from the one sitting on the armchair, and she was
also shedding the frazzle from the skin and... how she wished she could scratch her
nose... what a terrible itch! She started smalltalk again, so as to forget it.
“Pekingese, you said... very cute. And where did you find it?”
“Don't even mention it, those dogs cannot be found anywhere, my Lakis is not a plain
Pekingese, it is an old and pure breed, from noble ancestors and he has a pedigree,
that's why I don't trust anybody to leave him to and I always have him with me.”
“Ah, ok,” said Magda and stooped down over the basin again, while the little typhoon
was jerking its tail right in front of her.
The deafening sneeze of the stooped Magda, created a slight tempest on the dirty
water of the yellow basin and made the Pekingese hop up in the air and stay there
hovering for a while like a furry ball, before it lands again all scared on the dirty
mosaic floor and Diana eventually kick the basin along with her silver slipper to the
other end of the store. Magda's fingers tightened around the bevel following the
convulsion of her body. This was a spontaneous and very quick reaction and the right
little toe of Mrs. Diana rocketed almost simultaneously with the droplets of saliva from
her sneeze. Curious Lakis skidded on the soap water to see what exactly had
happened and hungrily snatched the little toe and disappeared hurriedly from the
open window door of the store.
Translated by Vassilis Manoussakis
Cicada
Τwo three thirty if need be
in the ground you wait for years
then you’ re resurrected like a true saint
you fly you cling to the trees
and start chanting
you hold the mantra
in east and west
with a persistent twelve-note
your baton the intensity of the heat
Explosions of sudden heatwave
persistent hold of the tone
rhythmical pauses of the autumn
and all end in two months
the rain curtain falls softly
little white shirts scattered all over
The absolute quiet deepens
Feathery
you also fall slowly, lightly
you tumble on the ground again
on it this time
unstable air skin
And I loved you so much
I didn’t live a summer without you
and didn’t come near a country you don’t live in
your transparent clothes
I was devotedly collecting
to make you again
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