You Killed My Rosemary Garden
Rosemary
garden
I planted my garden
but the darkness
came
My garden evaporated
white clouds
fumes
crack
like crackling a dragon underneath a dome
in a seashell
but my garden of Rosemary
Your feet trampled it
that pain
is greater than your anguish
you are the brown, tarry, commando boots
you are the cracked lips
of the destruction
that takes away my Rosemary
and grifts the land by the sea
you won’t give me a pond
to wash my clothes
a stick to guide my sheep
there’s no land for me
to keep my garden
you took the land
burned the garden
ate my food
there’s no flour to make the bread
no oil to light the lantern
there are no tissues to wipe my face
Crying?
you asked
and gave me a burnt shrub
to dry my Rosemary tears
This poem is excerpted from Convergence: Poetry on the Environmental Impacts of War (Scarlet Tanager Press, 2026), edited by Anne Coray, J. C. Todd, and Teresa Mei Chuc.
This is the second of three poems from the anthology reprinted in Terrain.org over the third week of May 2026. As an introduction to the poems, read Teresa Mei Chuc’s “War and Its Impact on Non-Human Life.”
Jaylan Salah Salman is an Egyptian poet, podcaster, author, and film critic, widely known for her diverse creative contributions and feminist perspective. A two-time winner of Egypt’s national literary awards, Salah has a wide-ranging body of work spanning multiple languages and media. Salah publishes film reviews and articles on various platforms, including InSession Film, Geek Vibes Nation, Cinema Femme Magazine, and Moviejawn. She hosts a YouTube web series called The JayDays, where she comments on films and other daily life topics with a dry sense of humor.
Header photo by Nataliia K, courtesy Shutterstock.
