Then

I wanted to use this cycle as an excuse to play with a poetic form I had never tried. The result is this poem, which is vaguely inspired by prompt choice V, and is in ghazal form. The salient feature of the ghazal form is that it is composed of at least five couplets that are autonomous except for the repetition of a phrase or rhymed refrain. Most of the examples I have found in English are more esoteric than anything I can manage; I think I ended up with a sort of ineffable, free-associative theme, despite the requirement of couplet autonomy.

More information here and here.

Again this year I run through many fallen leaves;
my heart won't open like it did. I was younger then.

My head turns to see you; turns again to see you gone.
Mind runs to find you, body sits, heart pains in hunger then.

Newborn song, straining to cross continents and oceans,
rooted firm in me. Still I couldn't make my lungs heard then.

A man stands in a field before an ancient house.
Door slams; a thousand birds fly, feeling the house shudder then.

Corpses of past lives have no peace in cemeteries.
We sent those decaying selves out to sea. We were younger then.