Ghazal

Rumi became a sage for us.
Ghalib's ghazals revealed an age to us.

It was a poem written with moonlight,
Deftly inscribed on a pond's page for us.

We were heirs to a kingdom of dust.
You foretold wars the world would wage for us.

Banished to the desert without water,
The storms you summoned would rage for us.

In a dream we were birds perched on a branch.
Shadows built in the trees a cage for us.

You are composed now completely of light.
O the world was your theatre, a stage for us.



First published in Texas Poetry Journal (2006)