Poetry Showcase from Hibah Shabkhez

Know, Please, That We Know Nothing

Before your just-shrouded head, in the first
Numb hours, the brain's pencils are already
Out, sharpened and scribbling. Straining to burst,
   Finding itself sewn into words instead,
Her heart, which would fain break in peace and thirst
Until obliterated, curses them
   For doing so.

Her mouth twists and barks, drawn by self-contempt  
   Into a crooked sneer. Self-written all, 
To our own secret shame, we must attempt
As we watch, to not understand this dread
We know, to not see why she is laughing
And bidding your still, shrouded head
   Turn and laugh too.

  Reason Enough

Why is happiness not reason enough
For the doing of things? Because the tough,
The dreary, the harder-to-do we deem
More worth our while. Because we cannot seem
To be made of quickly soaked, shallow stuff

Like tissue paper. So we must be gruff,
Leatherly, even to our own hearts, rough
And resolute in refusing to scream
   Why is happiness not ... ?

In ponderous usefulness without fluff
Or leavening, this sad desire to cuff
Yourself to suffering, endure your dream
Being ground to flour by the cruel stream  
Of twisted logic that calls it a bluff
   Why is happiness not ... ?

Zany Zealots Losing Zest

We sing of a world drowned in its own ice
We paint it aflame in unchecked desire;
We scream out our pires cauchemars, and
    They shrug. 

How do we give them the dream-warning. then?
How do we ring for them the death-knell when
We scream out our pires cauchemars, and
     They shrug?

Would a thousand thousand fell dreams suffice
To draw one gaze to our raging fire?
We scream out our pires cauchemars, and
    They shrug.



A Poetry Showcase by Hibah Shabkhez

Bio: Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, and a happily eccentric blogger from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has previously appeared in Fevers of the Mind, Black Bough, Zin Daily, London Grip, The Madrigal, Acropolis Journal, Lucent Dreaming, and a number of other literary magazines. Studying life, languages, and literature from a comparative perspective across linguistic and cultural boundaries holds a particular fascination for her.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HibahShabkhez