A Ghazal of the Unwanted Dawn

We had a local power outage a few nights ago.

It was productive. What else could I do but work on poetry?

Here's one:

A Ghazal of the Unwanted Dawn

―after Hafiz

O barmaid, bear the bottle, fill the glass

I took love easy, but it took me hard.

I smell her night-black ringlets in the dawn

Hearts can be a cruel hand at cards.

If only she had left―but she did not.

Which means I must: the matins take their toll.

Since she has sobered, doused with wine, I go

Along the lonely backstreets of the soul.

Past heaps of trash, and tempest, and the pit

How can he know, who never launched a ship

Or never was the goat in gossips’ talk

Secrets are not kept by open lips

 And what seems night may only be eclipse.

Beware the dawn if you forget the dawn.

-- Stephen K. Roney