À Dieu

Hibah Shabkhez

When the last hunched seagull is gone
And the murmuring waves unlit,
I lose
All shame.
For one last word to dwell upon,
To drive inward like a horse's bit
I choose
Your Name


Author’s Notes:

The first seeds of this poem came to me while watching the sun set over the sea at Port Picain. Afterwards, I fiddled with the words I had hastily jotted down, offering them different forms until they sounded just right.


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 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