GHAZAL: This Winter

Above the gables and the lamps a hunter’s moon this winter,

clear as a lightbulb or a polished spoon this winter. 

Awake at five, awake at six, awake at seven

the light is gone, and not returning soon this winter. 

Spit in a cup, hold out your arm for the needle,

blow out hard as you can into a balloon this winter. 

“To write a sonnet is a fascist act” –

Suggest that to the next tyre-burning goon this winter! 

The slave girl stole the king’s mare and rode away –

write her أبيات, her canticle, her rune, this winter.

After you left, I didn’t know for the last time,

I listened to an exile play qanoun this winter.

Acedia, bronchitis, despair, nostalgia –

diseases to which I’m not immune this winter. 

Oh, weren’t we once gallant and outrageous ? 

Now we trade ailments on the phone, ya Mimijune, this winter. 

Let’s say that the beloved’s name is Shams

For it is Shams I am بدون  . this winter.