In the bleak midwinter

By Iqra Nazeer

It's scary what snow can blanket

In the woods desolate 'n distant,

It's scary just the same

About a grin.

Alone

By Amna Ameer

Alone I carry

The bane of my existence

Like a feather

Swaying in the wind

Without a home

Residing only in poetry

Of heavy words

And sublime feelings

Alone I travel

The unchartered lands

Of unknown fears

Making sense of days

That change into nights

Blinking away a lifetime

That on longer belongs to only me

It is shared

With seasons

Confiding at the equinox

Secrets that only I decipher

Held captive in the shadows

That walk next to me at night

They know where I sleep

And creep into my morning tea

Tasting the bitter reality

Of where I used to be

Inside my mind is a home

I built so long ago

I've forgotten where I put the keys

Drowning in deep slumber

Is who I was some time ago

Alone I watch the sunset

As twilight turns to dust

And I watch the world belong to someone else

At least for now I know

The reflection I see

Is no longer me.

Rhyme ‘n’ reason

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is a poetic device where the writer addresses a person or thing that isn’t present with an exclamation.

“O stranger of the future!

O inconceivable being!

whatever the shape of your house,

no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you

may wear,

I bet nobody there likes a wet dog either.

I bet everybody in your pub

even the children, pushes her away.”

- Billy Collins, “To A Stranger Born In Some Distant Country Hundreds Of Years From Now”

Change

By Mah Noor

And then

All of a sudden

I began to like

The things I can't withstand

The change

Compiled by SK