Farthings hold their piddling worth like fleas
unwanted, stray, maintaining given form.
A secret cache of secrets overtakes
the corner of an attic unreached.
A correspondence course offered privacy
in learning by inhaling a mere book.
Fractions colluded to seem almost whole.
A window, full of mismatched parts in rows.
Is satisfaction mere facsimile
of something lusted after now half real?
from Ghazals for 2023
#20
Sheila E. Murphy’s most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023) October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, 2023), and Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023). Her Wikipedia page can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy
from Ghazals for 2023
#21
Old throats performing oratorios.
Fidgety warbled tones, rehearsal's done.
Bereft of patience, I think that I am
getting somewhere because of limbs moving.
All across America, sunflower
seeds are landing on people's open palms.
Clockwise progress toward infinity.
Choice words hover in the balance, spoken.
He wore a cape he opened to showcase
phenomena he claimed ontology.