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oppositional poetry, prose, polemic
Sheila E. Murphy
from Ghazals for 2023
76/
Precise mistakes lodged between repeat signs.
Sing to me in your pretty solvent sleep.
Immaculate reception zithers here.
Listen to taut strings be lovingly touched.
A perfect world might mean no afternoons.
Rakish tilt to hat perched atop the head.
Salesy type lacking just intimacy.
Lonely life a whole in one mirroring.
Rumors circulate and pick up high speed.
Tales of boondoggles recited as facts.
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from Ghazals for 2023
77/
Breath happens once and then repeats itself.
She said the one I loved was proud of me.
Illusion: windows filling up with light.
Reflection gives back what is not absorbed.
Innocence unlikely to be retrieved.
Pray that I might locate maturity.
Kitchen disposal, working properly.
At last releasing dross with a firm grip.
Autumn loose leaf littering the mind yard.
I retreat to fear the place of kindling.
from Ghazals for 2023
78/
His tears although genuine are rehearsed.
In full flower of the Hallmark channel.
Tonight unblistered singing me to sleep.
I long for history's encore flower.
Decibels in the lively restaurant.
The coughing has outlived its usefulness.
Poetry's own elasticity blooms.
Once again I live for a rehearsal.
Your love an endowment I don't deserve.
Magic me to life here among the blooms.
from Ghazals for 2023
79/
I could not replicate your smart advice.
In the fireplace up north newspaper flares.
Chance operations embody this life.
A good luck charm begun at root chakra.
Within me the snow path leading upward.
My school a state of mind and poetry.
Hasty fractions pushed together form breadth.
A healing depth arises from within.
Chalky sky or is it milky daylight?
Homespun weather recalls another time.
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Sheila E. Murphy © 2023