• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Isles of the Left

For socially just, egalitarian and greener Malta

Menu
  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • About
    • WHO WE ARE
    • CONTACT US
  • Magazine
    • LONG READ
    • CULTUREEverything you like to know about culture
    • ECONOMY
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • SOCIETY & POLITICS
    • EDUcation & OPPortunity
    • SEXUALITY & GENDER
    • TECHNOLOGY
    • HUMOUR
    • POETRYPoetry and essays
    • VOICES
  • Reading Lists
  • Podcasts
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Modern Love, Part 1

February 13, 2018 · Maria Theuma ·

Poetry of Maria Theuma.

Illustrations by Warren Bartolo

 

 

This Doesn’t Bode Well for Us

 

 

Travelling into the past
I examine the shapes I’ve shifted into
since the day I was born

Once a song
Another time a tooth
Quite often the shadow of a lover

Also a fruit tree
My flesh lemons
Sweet by chance or by miracle

I’ve been asked
How does it feel to have your body gone?
Do you like it?
Not really
But ohmygod does it feel right

Look at me
All night I lie on the beach and eat sand
I refuse to drown with the lovesick at sea
And I’m going to have to stay awake

Dear someone
You are not here
Of course
But I still exist through you
Not as myself
Something of me is a blind spot
Something of you is a lie

What was I
When you were real and rocked me to sleep?
I’d say my name to you
I’d say it softly
The way you liked it
Tell me how to feel and I might feel it
I (who never wished to feel)
I’m feeling and I’m grieving

I don’t have to be anything ever again
I’ve claimed you mine in every possible language
Sweetheart
Please come
There’s nothing left to see
Please come

 

 

Farewell Note

 

Walking out of this life, I think about you and stop in my tracks to carve your story in stone. I lean against it for a while, like an ancient wind. You make my death feel the size of itself. For that, I love you, at the end of my only life.

But what can I even say to you? Death feels like being in a place far beyond the limits designated by God (or was it by you, that one time at dusk, when I watched you fix your gaze on a distant point somewhere along the confines of a pink sea, when you begged me to write its coordinates in the small of your back?). Death is what missing you feels like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Theuma is a PhD student within the Department of English at the University of Malta. She likes drinking Bloody Marys, watching figure skating and reading online forum threads about JonBenét Ramsey.
Warren Bartolo is a Classics undergraduate student and a freelance illustrator. He has recently illustrated a proverbial book by the name of Vox Depicta.

 

Read More!

Tagged With: modern love, poetry

Maria Theuma

Maria Theuma

is a Malta-based writer and researcher. She has studied English at the University of Malta and Goldsmiths, University of London, and has recently submitted a doctoral thesis on the relationship between posthuman aesthetics and beauty. Her other areas of academic and personal interest are feminist literary theory, girlhood studies, and millennial- and Gen-Z-focused content surrounding both pop and digital culture.

Her creative nonfiction, as well as her poetry, has appeared in The Rumpus and Isles of the Left, among other places. Her latest collaborative project, titled ‘Transformations and Translations’, was commissioned by and presented at Malta’s Three Palaces Festival in November 2020.

View all posts

While we have you...

...We have a high opinion of our readers and thus post no clickbait. If you like what you read here, kindly help us to protect our content from the bias of social media filters. Not to miss any of our posts, hover over the button "Following" on our Facebook page and check "See first", "Notifications - All On". That way we will always feature on your timeline.

Thank you!

Footer

WE ARE:

-.. . -.. .. -.-. .- – . -.. / .- -. -.. / . -. – …. ..- … .. .- … – .. -.-.

Raisa Galea
Raisa
Galea
Michael Grech
Michael
Grech
Francois Zammit
Francois
Zammit
Kurt Borg
Kurt
Borg
Maria Theuma
Maria
Theuma
Josephine Burden
Josephine
Burden
Rachael Scicluna
Rachael
Scicluna
Daiva Repečkaitė
Daiva
Repečkaitė
Joseph Abela
Joseph
Abela
Martin Galea De Giovanni
Martin
Galea
Abigail Muscat
Abigail
Muscat
Bernard Cauchi
Bernard
Cauchi
Alicia Said
Alicia
Said

WE FOLLOW:

WE DISCUSS:

George Cross street art consumerism Labour Party Manoel Island human rights refugees social justice climate action Environment racism cyborg Malta Dockyard expats inequality Marxism British rule global economy technology stereotypes ħamalli wildlife Egrant urban planning European Parliament Elections 2019

For a socially just, egalitarian and greener Malta © 2021 · Log in

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy