by Mark Jabaut
Man is Clay
In this spring of undisturbed blossomings
Green things grow in gardens I cannot reach.
Tendrils on tendrils crossing paths in rings
Decked with a myriad bright flowers, each
As undimmed and untrimmed as a forest,
Or an unforced smile.
The last of the water like silver thread
Runs tangling and untangling through my hands
Into the lawn-grass worn down by the tread
Of boots and rollers, mixing as it lands
With the earth. Two things that once purified
Become soiling mud.
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 Wellington Street Review, Black Bough, Nine Muses, 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.
Mark Jabaut is a playwright, author and photographer who lives in Webster, NY with his wife Nancy. Mark’s play IN THE TERRITORIES, originally developed via Geva Theatre’s Regional Writers Workshop and Festival of New Theatre, premiered in May 2014 at The Sea Change Theatre in Beverly, MA. His 2015 Rochester Key Bank Fringe Festival entry, THE BRIDGE CLUB OF DEATH, went on to be featured at an End of Life Symposium at SUNY Broome County and is listed with the National Issues Forum for those who wish to host similar events. Other plays seeing the stage in recent years include THE HATCHET MAN, DAMAGED BEASTS and COLMA! Mark has authored many short plays performed by The Geriactors, a local acting group. Mark’s fiction has been published in a local Rochester magazine, POST, as well as The Ozone Park Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Spank the Carp, Defenestration and Ponder Savant. Additional information can be found at www.markjabaut.com.