POETRY: Ode to Lupah Sug, My Heart’s Abode

Lupah Sug, where skies embrace the sea,
A land of beauty, wild and free,
With mountains tall and rivers pure,
In your embrace, my soul is sure.

Your forests hum with whispers sweet,
Where earth and heaven gently meet,
Oh, how I long to walk your shore,
And feel your winds forevermore.

The trees that sway, the birds that sing,
In Lupah Sug, eternal spring,
Your hills and valleys, green and grand,
I yearn to touch your blessed land.

Though far I roam, my heart is near,
In every dream, you still appear,
One day, I’ll stand beneath your sky,
And let my spirit truly fly.

Oh, Lupah Sug, where hope is born,
In your embrace, I’m never torn,
One day, I’ll feel your soft caress,
And in your arms, find peace and rest.

(Davao City-based Shiaryma Yusop Hadjirul-Salihuddin, a Tausug survivor of life’s tempest, is an empowered wife and mother of two, a retired NICU-R.N. of KSA, and a poet from Tapul, Sulu; who yearns to be back in the Abode of Her Heart: Lupah Sug)