Land-Escape

Sumera Saleem

September 25, 2022

Trees in my garden are imagination

And flood in the city is real

And both make no parallel of what happiness is.

A moment passes and all a wreck.

I pick up my pen to plant another garden,

Free from the fear of being uprooted

And washed away under weary clouds.

Moments stretch into seasons

And seasons move in a perfect cycle.

Cyclically speaking, will there be another flood in the city?

Should I continue holding my pen to plant another garden?

When trees in my garden are real

And flood in the city is not imaginative

I do not know the soil I may ground myself in.

Sumera Saleem is a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature, the University of Sargodha, Sargodha and Gold medalist in English literature from the University of the Punjab for the session 2013-15. Her poems have appeared in Tejascovido, Langdon Review published by Tarleton State University, USA, Blue Minaret, Lit Sphere, Surrey Library UK, The Text Journal, The Ghazal Page, Pakistani Literature published by Pakistan Academy of Letters, Word Magazine. A few more are forthcoming in international and national anthologies.