The 2013 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival runs for the 8th-10th November and this weekend Ink Sweat & Tears is featuring poems on the theme of ‘Beauty’ which is the subject of the IS&T-supported Discussions and Short Takes this year. Find out more about the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival here
Wild Fennel
Oh my sweet girl,
body outgrowing girl-thoughts
that bloom and burst…
At five, your loneliness was hard to bear
but now you seek its comfort –
behind the closed door, your thoughts
drift through the room, mauve smoke
tendrilling through the gap.
Once you covered yourself in leaves,
your face showing. Now you swim through cold
mountain rivers, brown reed in the water,
your quietness everywhere
like the scent of wild fennel.
Shazea Quraishi is a Pakistani-born writer, editor, translator and creative writing tutor whose poems have been published in journals and anthologies in the UK and US. She is currently writing a play based on her recent chapbook, The Courtesans Reply. This is her website, and you can hear her reading her work here.