Don Perkins responded, but the formatting was off, ruining his superb poem. Here we go again:
Mustanged Ghazal for/from Bob and Anna Marie
It’s sometimes funny, and sometimes it’s not,
the phantoms that swim up from memory’s murk.
A dangerous thing, that dream of power
born from falsehoods escaping memory’s murk.
Drop everything for joy,* a blessing saved
and consumed like breath from memory’s murk.
Return to rituals we were to the night;
Shake loose, dance to tunes from memory’s murk.
Describe yourself in colors named in songs,
And mixed from pigments aswirl in memory’s murk.
Stumble, poefying down the path of life,**,
Bemused by the sun and memory’s murk.
Don Perkins 11 Feb 2024
Acknowledgements: Bob Okaji; Anna Marie Sewell; * Shawna Lemay, “Finding Your Joy,” Transactions with Beauty, 3 Feb 2024;
** Anna Marie Sewell, email 10 Feb 2024.