I am going through the poetry I’ve written since ’92 and organizing their titles and properties into a database, as much to learn about Microsoft Access as to organize my writing for keeping track of submissions and for other purposes. When I read this over, I realized it might be worth having here on my blog. I was bold to compare myself with Rumi and Hafez in this ghazal, especially considering my abilities at the time I wrote this, but it does have its redeeming qualities.
Emaciation
Long ago, before her depths fed mad conglomerate needs,
This blood-soaked sand was fertile land that met more moderate needs.
Winds rise up and desert storms destroy ten thousand homes,
And hungry ghosts feed on decay to glut degenerate needs.
All short-sighted might, the Great Machine consumes the world,
Proclaiming all the while to meet the world’s agglomerate needs.
Liberation brought their bane of plunder, ruin and rape,
For raging hearts were finally freed to sate intemperate needs.
Crimson streaks of blood now stain the bedding of our hope,
And fifty bullet holes present the West’s adulterate needs.
Time will sweep the cross and crescent both to forgotten dust;
No-one will remember their strife or their commensurate needs.
Hafez and Rumi, were they here, might have written the same;
You are obliged, Zahhar, to plead the poor’s confederate needs.
This is my 118th ghazal.
