JEALOUS LOVER

The fast is also like
being so wracked with love
you can't eat. Tossed and
wrenched and high and dry with
single-minded devotion and expectation that no single

bite or sip can pass our lips, our
eyes are parched, throat dry,
head gone elsewhere almost entirely, and

only with extreme concentration can we
perform our usual tasks with anything
like normality.

It sweeps us off our feet. It's
bigger than we are. It goes
off with all our thoughts.

It's a jealous lover.

DANIEL ABDAL-HAYY MOORE

10 Ramadan (morning)
(from Ramadan Sonnets)

ANGELS, FURTIVE AND UNSEEN

Angels, furtive and unseen
pass quite easily through matter.
They move like a cascade's glittering sheen
from peak-top crashing with a clatter

as rapidly and deft as water.
Made of light, they move as light
that has no substance to get fatter,
but only, against the dark, more bright.

Angelic bands move through the night.
There's no cliff, gulf or canyon too
outrageous for their leaping flight
to cross, or swim, or scatter through.

They're what makes everything alive.
Dead worlds vibrate when they arrive.

DANIEL ABDAL-HAYY MOORE

13 Ramadan
(from Ramadan Sonnets)