Ghazal

When you wake to jitters every day, it's heartache.
Ignore it, explore it, either way, it's heartache.

Youth's a map you can never refold,
from Yokohama to Hudson Bay, it's heartache.

Ah love, love, who are centuries old,
it's not time or absence I can't weigh, it's heartache.

Heartache with women, heartache with men,
call myself straight, unexpectedly gay, it's heartache.

Follow the piper, lost on the road,
whistle the tune that led him astray: it's heartache.

Stop at the roadside, name each flower,
the loveliness that will always stay: it's heartache.

Why do nightingales sing in the dark?
Ask the radif, it will only say 'it's heartache'.

Let khalvati, a 'quiet retreat',
close my ghazal and heal as it may its heartache.