1 poem
by Zahra Khan
Zahra Khan is a 21 year-old student at Trinity College, Dublin. She has been published in The Moth Literary Magazine, Icarus, Epoque, and was recently named runner-up for the Erbacce Poetry Prize. She is currently working with them on a chapbook to be released by the end of the year. She mostly writes to stop herself from posting Instagram stories. Her work is often about love, childhood, or, when provoked, about race / ignorance.
Refuge Seekers
It’s rained like this before and
the snails would come crawling into
the estate. their homes now
Flooded, the risk of drowning Compels
them to risk exposing Themselves
to birds or the children crowded
around my wriggling estate waiting
with bags of salt.
It’s rained like this before and
This home’s ceiling is caving
there is only so much damp it can take
before its shell goes CRUNCH
The book doesn’t own its violence
didn’t mean to give you the papercut
but creatures of soft skin make for good fun.