Featured art by Sulola Imran Abiola.
As in my warmly blanketed comfort I
Devour reams of torment and misery
With lusting, shuddering glee, I know why.
I know the hushed why of all history.
I who wince and cradle a stubbed toe
Read of the sleep-robbed, the starved, the scourged
And with absolute certainty I know
That’s not me. I would have survived, emerged
Glorious. Unbroken in soul if not
In body, scorning to beg, to betray
A brother for a crust of bread, a hot
Drink, a whip’s lash kept one instant at bay.
I know why they marched boys by the hundred
Coolly into the cannon's blazing maw;
Why while their volcano seethed with dread
Fires to melt them, they shrugged on: the law
That selfsame law of me-immunity,
On which our Armageddons of fiction
Rest: it shall slay the others, but leave me
Alive and whole, shall bring me redemption
As in my warmly blanketed comfort I
Devour reams of torment and misery
With lusting, shuddering glee, I know why.
I know the hushed why of all history.
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 Wellington Street Review, Black Bough, Across The Margin, Borrowed Solace, Ligeia, Cordite Poetry, 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
Sulola Imran Abiola is a poet & a phone photographer, a public servant, a lover of arts and an optimist who believes breakthrough in every life-sniffing situation. He writes across all themes. His work is has appeared/forthcoming in The Quills, Kalopsia Lit Magazine, Writenowlit, Lumiere Review and several other magazines. He writes & savor the sound of phone shutters from the state of Osun, Nigeria.
Instagram & Twitter: @official_sulola
Facebook : Sulola Abiola Imran
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