JOHN P. PORTELLI

 

Elegy For The Uprooted

 

Forever staring at a sky

lit by fireworks of a feast that resists an end.

And now you dare to invite me to accompany you

to the beach, where tonight,

the sea is endlessly lapping on the shore,

the calming sound

composed only for us,

reminding us of the elegy of the uprooted.

 

And when I attempted to write their story,

the ink of the pen stained

my finger, and all I could do was

hum.

 

The voice of silence

Your eyes emerge from the voice of silence

 

that loses sight of existence:

 

even the shade of death is terrified.

 

My Fair Land

 

I am not apt to embrace

your wounds and truths

my fair land,

we have dwelt too long afar.

 

Onto you I bestow my love.

Yet, those eyes will not see

at morn, your heavy breath

 

reaches my ears

lusting evermore.

I hear your laughter in twilight born,

howling like a temptress in rapture

your wounds wound me.

 

So, your truths flourish with flaws.

 

My hands are drenched in blood

bringing down these four walls.

 

Never could I have soothed

your wounds

never could I have embraced

your truths:

 

fuck your beauty!

 

 

JOHN P. PORTELLI

 

JOHN P. PORTELLI, originally from Malta, is a professor emeritus in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. Besides 11 academic books, he has published twelve collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and two novels. His literary work has been translated into Italian, Romanian, Greek, Farsi, Arabic, Korean, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. His latest poetry collection is The Lost Coyote (2026), Sulfur Editions and Horizons. He now lives between Toronto and Malta, and beyond!