La Mortel Pandémie Sans Merci

SUMERA SALEEM

May 17, 2020

I imagine it from the past, as naturally dreamful and real

At the same time, touching my petal-like child body, entangled

In a soft embrace with blue sky, a pair of particles cradling

In a pulsating wheel of energy, an endless web of waves

I call the hope of re-connection to an invisible

World we all belong to. Looking at the metallic glow

Of the sky, my blinking eyes flushed with wonder and

Milk-smeared innocence, light bends my mind to map

The shapes sculpted on blue film: a dragon without tail,

Tulips, a unicorn, a few unnamed, dissolving into the wind,

The never-melting snowflakes of floating clouds, breeze whistling,

Washing my ears in birdsong until my body awakens

To the weathered success of hubris, autumn-struck by

The cool shadows of uncertainty, striding behind us,

Showing us fear in a mouthful of air, roaming like

A strange wanderer of lower realms, an invisible touch –

All stand in thrall, a deep slumber of (dis) order,

Ritually baptized in a scented soap unlike kindness.

SUMERA SALEEM is a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan; gold medalist in English literature from the University of the Punjab; and sub-editor in the department of English, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. She has published poems in national and international literary magazines.