Tr Silke Liria Blumbach and George Wallace

Bitten by knives

the land of Troy burst open

punctured by the Trojan horse

but enlarged

our tiny minds didn’t catch that

we took the bait

its shadow clothed our bodies

all I saw was myself with that Trojan horse

and the foam in its mouth

turning whiter than snow

and spilling over our table

nobody is troubled by the candies of pleasure

what will remain of Troy for us

besides the horse

with its bamboozling hee-haw?

SHAIP EMERLLAHU is a writer, editor and poetry organizer from Tetovo, North Macedonia, where he is director of the Ditet e Naimit festival. Born in, he studied Albanian language and literature at Prishtina University, Kosovo, obtained his PhD from Universitet i Tiranes and is a professor at University of Tetovo.  Emërllahu has participated in international and national poetry festivals in Columbia, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Bosnia/Hercegovina, and Montenegro and has been awarded with many national and international literary prizes.