Drawing nearer to you

Will I be drawn down to rivers of pus and molten brass, to hell forever?
Will I be born in heaven blessed with peace, and shade, and wealth, forever?

I dream of drawing near to the boundary of the pure lote tree.
In my sleep I have seen the rivers where saints and angels dwell, forever.

Yet within the day putrid white heat beats my mind and heart with a raging pollution.
Sleep sodden I strain to transcend a life placed down as an exile, forever.

My polluted body rises toward revelation away from words of anger.
fear of Your condemnation calls for the call to a higher level, forever.

The vulture soars and wobbles the sky, a constant sign of grace.
But even that perfect flight cannot the sun's advance repel, forever.

If I fall asleep in the bathtub you can wake me up.

The green scum around the tub washes off quickly
with a bit of scrubbing and some hot water. I
think it itches, but for you algae
and spirulina provide healing and detoxify.

Hot water and a book, edges molding from
too many times in the tub. Your computer
brings entertainment to make the dip more fun.
Interrupt you in your ablutions and be an abuser!

Lean back, breathe in steam and greens.
Close the door and enjoy the quiet.
Your astral plane needs the attention, sin,
the wet warm H2O will be so satisfying.

Slip your hands through the water and enjoy,
call if you need juice or a ducky toy.

Click here.

If you click on the title to this post (click here) you will be directed to a cool little website that has a lot of ghazals on it. Really interesting because the English language ghazal is such a normal form now. The concept of illicit love is not there so much- a lot of nature imagery.

Mercy

Where can I go to seek Divine mercy?
Hidden in the dark, can I find mercy?
My sins gathered around me like a veil
running for Zion, crying, "mercy!"
An adulteress facing the crowd, stones
held in their hands, still desiring mercy.
Bold, converting not quick enough-
what do I need with Hind? Mercy.
Debased in life, shamed enough to cover
my guilt- my reward for trying, mercy.
Your Knowledge too high for me, yet forgiveness
you promise me- Alim, Azim, Rahim- mercy!

Rahman, Rahman, Rahman

Peace, end of the night. No prayers said, just thoughts
of work, coffee, time spent alone. No sound
of distress can be heard. Tense, overwrought
with anxiety, the darkness yields dawn.

I can feel your beard against my shoulder.
A foreign emotion, less than human,
more the rift of family strangeness and
the loss of connection and fellowship.

What did I think would bind us at this point?
I have names, money, jewelry, prayers, drawn
to me like stocks. I could shake, weep, annoint
you with balm or salve and remain unheard.

You sleep somewhere with my only child, lone
testament to the womb and the ocean.

Settle down.

Keep several wives, a dungeon and a large
contingent of girlfriends all at once.
Encourage idle women on the internet to charge
their manicures and lingerie to you for tasteless sums.

Make sexy ladies' fantasies preoccupy them while they work,
and while they excersize at the gym or local lake.
Give sisters an extravagant visual perk-
a garnish to chicken salad, tofu sqewers or steak.

Be they skinny or fat, wealthy or deprived,
lustful or chaste, indolent or virtuous,
never let their smallest wishes be denied.
Be giving and always be promiscuous.

Suffering and jilted, I'll just be your loving wife
and keep my vows as a commitment to a monasticism. Right.

Purify my heart

Meditation- work to keep my devotion pure
from greed and worldly distraction, pure.
Your nature soars above the empty
forms and loves of all I understand, pure.
A smell, a sense that fills the heart
with longing to abandon all impure.
Each good quality of Yours that we embody
now recalled in our human temper,
Shining our hearts we sing our love
naming Your names, longing for heaven pure.
Did you think, Sarah, mere thought would cleanse
the heart and make Almighty God's Rahman appear?