Lovers and Trees
In the evening trees become sad
I climbed on them like a metaphor,
later it transpired they were
our anthropological versions
organic companions shadowing
imagine how many lovers have sat
under them moaning the mysteries
how many fruits have plopped in laps
(I love you) languages bred seasonally
spores of sentences pollinated
wizards hid in stumps
squirrels interrupted tête-à-têtes
but posed no threat to cameras.
I embrace them standing steadfast
branches like women’s hair braided.
Rizwan Akhtar is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His debut collection of poems Lahore, I Am Coming (2017) is published by Punjab University Press. He has published poems in well-established poetry magazines in the UK, the US, India, Canada, and New Zealand. He was a part of the workshop on poetry with Derek Walcott at the University of Essex in 2010.