The Ghazal About _____
this ain’t a poem, but a treatise about ________
a manifesto for the people to shout ________
Song of a Masjid’s Floor
Image: “Lahore #44” by Faizan Adil. “Song of a Masjid’s Floor” was written by Ammara Younas for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2024, and selected as the Series Editor’s Choice.
Kaizen: How to Build a Poem
Ignore your hand and focus on the pen,
which writes without your knowledge of the whole.
Do not insert the personal. Avoid translation.
The changes made are small and gradual.
Ghazal 28 (‘like this’)
Only grass is hurt when two bulls lock horns like this.
Even the sun was ashamed. Were we born like this?
Airborne Hope
in china, a farmer sows
a mountain filled with ambitious wishes of
jade rings and lush, velvet beds sailing
blessings to new york.
Ghazal of And
Sometimes, in school, I felt lonely thinking about conjunctions and
commas. The sentence ended before I knew it, but I wanted and.