She was one of the few good friends I’ve made in my adult life, someone who took me seriously as an individual and as a poet. Ten years later (It is October 27, 2012, and I’m posting this as a backlogged post), I still miss her and think about her. She had a positive impact on my life.
Displacement
In memory of Yvonne Sligh
You’ve left behind a nightmare of ripping loss,
And joy was sliced from the heart by this clipping loss.
Knowing you faded a little more each day,
We tried our best to ignore it, this nipping loss.
Together we shared in brimming abundance, but
We at the banquet only were sipping loss.
The empty space you filled is empty again;
Wind howls into the vacuum with whipping loss.
Will you now dream of us from that place of dreams,
And pray our hearts to heal from your stripping loss?
Will you with angel feathers we cannot see
Brush past in hopes to console our gripping loss?
Take heart, Zahhar, for your friend has but transformed,
Moving beyond this realm of slipping loss.
This is my 68th ghazal.
