Poem of the WeekPoetry

Poem of the Week | Valour in Darkness by Hibah Shabkhez

By Hibah Shabkhez

VALOUR IN DARKNESS

by Hibah Shabkhez

 

As ebony concedes star after star

To the bruising mist from the east

We cackle and rise.

 

Smiles of triumph after our secret war

Light up the suffused heaving breast

Of morn-stirred skies

 

Accustomed to mourning our dishonour

In the morning’s lonely watches

Of lamentation.

 

Today we celebrate our own valour,

Those of us who saw cockroaches 

Fly, and did not run.

Headstuff is now open for poetry submissions for our spring Poem of the Week series. We are also accepting submissions for Poetry Week. Submission window for both is open until the 31st of March 2020. Check our submissions page for guidelines. 

Cover photo by Vincentiu Solomon on Unsplash

Hibah Shabkhez 1 posts 0 comments

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.