SEQUESTERED BEAUTIES
Beauty
Is half of a fading flower.
The blackening, crinkling edges that call
A proud farewell to the sky as they fall
Beauty
Is a cracked bulb in a tower;
Guiding a rasping pen across a page,
Bracing torn feet to smile and tread the stage
Beauty
Is the earth after a shower.
The stillness of leaves on a sultry night
In the languid grey of smothered starlight
Beauty
Is half of a child’s smile’s power;
Steadying a tired head, a work-worn hand,
Returning hope to a war-blighted land
Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, a teacher of French as a foreign language and a happily eccentric blogger from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has previously appeared in Petrichor, Remembered Arts, Rigorous, Lunate, With Painted Words, The Dawntreader 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.
Twitter: @hibahshabkhez
Instagram: @shabkhez_hibah
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