Friday, December 12, 2025

GHAZAL FOR AIR by Mary Ann Honaker

Mitch Kesler

GHAZAL FOR AIR

One part of our souls will join Zeus in the air.

He does not sit on clouds. He is dispersed in air.

One part of our souls goes to dim Hades

to dwell always in that choking, murky air.

In many languages, spirit and breath

are the same word.  Inside us, holy air.

One hot summer day, the forest in flames

stung our noses and thickened the air.

Wear your mask covering both nose and mouth.

Viruses, some lethal, ride on the air.

Soul enters the infant at its first cry.

The soul slips in on an intake of air.

You cannot see the wind, yet it knocks down

the elderly tree.  Thread of life severed by air. © Mary Ann Honaker


Mary Ann Honaker

Mary Ann Honaker is the author of Becoming Persephone (Third Lung Press, 2019), Whichever Way the Moon (Main Street Rag, 2023), and the forthcoming Night is Another Realm Altogether (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2026). Her poems have appeared in Bear Review, DIAGRAM, JMWW, Juked, Little Patuxent Review, Rattle.com, Solstice, Sweet Tree Review, Tuskegee Reviewand elsewhere. She currently lives in Beckley, West Virginia.



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