Animate Teaspoons
By Hibah Shabkhez
Identifies with the nation of Pakistan
The world is burning. Our stainless steel reflects the glow, giving it the rich grace of a bonfire. You speak of war, and we move of our own accord in sync, to scoop up all the awkwardness and whisk it away. You speak of genocide, and we clink, drowning out all the murmuring until a question about cricket saves the day. Twitching like phantom limbs just loped off, we help drum into and out of your heads the strangest math yet compounded: you eat this burger, and a child dies: that is sure. If you do not eat it, does the child live? Maybe. So we whip up steaming cup after steaming cup for you to broil your brains in, while you rack them for ways to turn that maybe into a yes without singeing your own feet. You squirm and sigh and sit back down to eat, and a hundred thousand miles away, while we lie still in the bundle beside her, a mother in a tent reads to children who have not seen either in a fortnight: the bear brought the sugar, the elephant brought the milk, the little girl mixed them together with a teaspoon, in a glass that shone like silk.
Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, and a happily eccentric photographer 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