Italy Stories

,            about 2300 words James Foleyfarandthen@gmail.comwww.beyondthewind.comwww.mywarlove.com Machiavelli and Brexitby James Foley In Melbourne, Florida, the east wall of the Eau Gallie Public Library is sheer glass—facing the Intracoastal Waterway and the causeway soaring across it. And I remember how, on a September morning in 2017, this breathtaking view kept distracting me from Martin Andros’s voice as he read p...

She stepped down the broad marble staircase uncertainly, feeling the weight of the coin purse Artemidoros had given her thump heavily against her leg. At the bottom of the steps, she turned back, looking to the porch above, attempting to glimpse the man who stood in the shadows. A pale hand briefly extended into the sunlight in a decisive gesture; go. Exhaling a breath of pent-up nervousness, Liyah squared her shoulders a...

That summer, it was too hot. We didn’t have a thermometer, and even if we had, the little red lines and numbers wouldn’t have meant much to me. But I knew that it wasn’t normal. It couldn’t be. By the time the church clock struck ten it was already too stifling to venture outside. The sun had swelled to an angry pulsing ball of fire which I had come to regard as evil, lancing my eyes with pain when it glanced off the shin...

This, sure as Hellis not Harry's Barin Puerto Vallartawhere trannies and hookersdrink for freeon ladies nightThis, sure as Hellis not Harry's Barin Puerto Vallartawhere I have spentmy New Year's EveThis, ain't evenHarry's Bar in Firenze, Italywhere Hemingway hackswould flock for a weekendThis, is Harry's Bar!That, is my Bellini!These, are my memories of Venice!

The ice is drinking my AbsintheEthereal worms dance in my glassI have to improvise while wearing spatsMy TV is wearing a Hawaiian shirt (it's red if you are into details)and speaks to me only in ItalianI'm tempted to tell it that Absinthe is Frenchbut I'd feel silly talking to a box with electrodes - Do those even exist in the 21st century?The ice is drinking my AbsintheIt has consumed three drinks alreadyThere was one be...