Ghazal (or, The Song of the Lesbian Elephants)

[bronze_ribbons]

For elisem's Competition Challenge. I wasn't the winner (congrats, redbird!) but I had fun writing this.

Ghazal

To sing, you must listen to the roar of silence --
to the rumble of dust in the footprints of the elephants.

To march, you must study the linking of trunks --
the beat beneath the breasts of the lesbian elephants.

To glide, you must accept that the swirling mists
within the globes include the breaths of elephants,

their exhalations of memories stoking the whispers
and intimations of future intonations. "Elephants,

lesbian" -- behold the lines of lavish, lavender devotion
spaced with irregular tears. To dance with these elephants?

You must step outside of the rings and lend your ears
to the lioness who guards the lesbian elephants.

- pld, 7 Feb 2006

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What's a ghazal, you might be asking? See here for a heap of detail; like many writers in English, I observed only the rule convenient to me -- in this case, that each couplet end with the same word; my referring to the competition hostess in the last line is a twist on the tradition of the poet mentioning their own name in the final couplet. :-)

Comments

[wood-dragon.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Thank you!