With the murmur of the waters
Of ancient blitzes and slaughters
The screamechoes fleetingly come;
Mingle with sea-shells to become
Frightfully harmless sandfort chaunts;
Ruststrained dumbwaiters creaking taunts.
Wood-scallops strum songs of gore
Wait to hurl wrath upon the shore
Icespawn foaming with the tide,
Screaming, as on the sands they stride:
‘We stole your legion, blade and herd
Stole it and crushed it with a word’.
Here clink the founding crows’ beakers,
Dispel all edge-ticking speakers
Mist rivers into one haircut;
Sandspades remix stories long shut:
Gladiators growl at balloons,
The new nightgowns of warbled boons.
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 Zin Daily, Litbreak, Broadkill, Rising Phoenix, Big City Lit, Constellate, Harpy Hybrid, and a number of other literary magazines.
