Vacation

Photographer - Tobi Brun

Vacation

Everyone wants to find a pink island

I alone seek the amber. In the sand

The seashells whisper: ‘Are you green or blue

Watching us bob on the foam? Is it true

The homes of the dead stay homes on the land?’

The mollusc-ghosts and the jeering sea strand

More than shells upon the shore. In the bland

Frothing waves, soap-rinsings, I see the hue

Everyone wants to find.

Isle of hiraeth in the palm of my hand,

Turn not your bitter neem-bark rose now. Stand

Firm in my fading memory. Your dew

And sulphur are alike dear on this new

Sea-leached ground lined with the pink seashell brand

Everyone wants to find.

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 Pleiades, Miracle Monocle, Glassworks, Windsor Review, Moria, CommuterLit, 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 

Twitter X: @hibahshabkhez

Insta: @shabkhez_hibah