We Almost Lived Somewhere Else

by Vaneeza Sohail

CW: Implied gun violence

 

1 I write all over Karachi with claws, in servitude to ink and yet I cannot find the words to say Let me rest here 2 My family, freckled across Sindh’s sleeping back echoes my pain my pain Some cities are meant to be left My uncle left with a bullet lovingly lodged in his lungs 3 Mother of smoke, we can’t breathe so you give us rain we find laughter between sheets of anguish Ammi drapes the ocean around her but it still finds Nano’s grave 4 I sleep next to you like a resentful wife turning away from clouds of my half-dreams each buried in your suffering 5 In Baba’s Cultus I plan my escape We almost lived somewhere else you know Here, garbage leaves your beaches pockmarked 6 Gun to my baby brother’s head Baba sweats through his clothes The car turns up weeks later her organs gone, her wheels sold What do we do with our lives spared My brother dreams in gunsmoke and speaks in curses 7 I leave you I’ve left you in London it rains the sky weeps for both of us 8 Karachi /ˈkurachee/ proper noun i. where I keep my tokens of longing ii. where I hug my mother 9 You can’t save me and I can’t write about anything except you 10 In my dreams I love my blue city yes, it tried to kill me what lover hasn’t

 

 

Vaneeza Sohail is a writer from Karachi. Her work has been published in Diode Poetry, Wildness Journal and is upcoming in Driftwood Press, Passages North, Lakeer and elsewhere. When she isn’t writing, she’s taking photos of cats and flowers. She is on Instagram at @peacharchivist.

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Published On: September 21, 2025