Broken Ghazal by Steffen Horstmann

​"We're inside the fire, looking for the dark."
---Agha Shahid Ali,

Nights you leaned above a pond's black mirror,
Waiting for the moonlight to etch your face within it.

In my dream your shadow advances through a lit corridor,
Rushing away to leave no trace within it.

I close my eyes & hear your voice---the prayer
You'd recite simply to consider the grace within it.

The exile reinvents a homeland & discovers
His sanctuary, a sacred place within it.

I stand like an exclamation mark in a cemetery of snow,
Envisioning the shrine of words I'll place within it.

In Heaven's vault an immense silence, where you
Watched the comets teem & race within it.

This is your broken ghazal, fleeting words
The wind's breath will encase within it.

Shahid, you're inside the fire, searching for the dark---
Having returned to claim a space within it.