Ghazal #84 from Ghazals for the Friend, by Bill Gannett
We long to rise from the dead by receiving your embrace;
Why wait for the trumpets to blare to be caressed by grace?
This life of the living dead is a miraculous sham:
For the dead to impersonate the living- what a scam!
We are so perfectly programmed by the software of desire,
The mind cannot admit it is nothing but a morbid liar.
It would be much more likely for a duckbill platypus
To retire to Alaska, than for the mind to be honest!
Bells toll for the land of the free and the home of the brave:
We have more walking dead than corpses fill the grave.
By God, we long for real flesh and blood inspired by spirit,
And long to love the beloved God-Man- may we not deny it!
Only longing for love has brought Darvish a gasp of life;
The Friend’s name alone inspires the mind with honest strife!
