"[Ashes float from phantom ships that blaze in a gold light forever]" and "The Dahna Mirages"
[Ashes float from phantom ships that blaze in a gold light forever]
Ashes float from phantom ships that blaze in a gold light forever,
As djinns cross the ocean riding clouds in rapid flight forever.
Mars shines in a crystal rain of meteor showers, comets stream
Through stellar fires that rage in a galactic night forever.
Walls laced with bullets crumble, stacks of burning tires barricade
Cities that are echoing with prayers ghosts recite forever.
Turquoise light cascades from auroras adorned with whirling stardust,
Imbues planets that pulse in an opalescent night forever.
Angels hover above an indigo ocean, phoenixes soar
Beneath skies that radiate an incandescent light forever.
Shiva meditates in a sky swirling with layered silks of mist,
Clouds where rainbows blossom in an iridescent light forever.
The Dahna Mirages
Ghosts read prayers winds mimic in the Dahna mirages,
Fall silent to lute music in the Dahna mirages.
As cool springs shed billowing mist, gypsys feel the silken
Texture of the air's fabric in the Dahna mirages.
Dewdrops transform to diamonds amid relics, gleaming sand
Morphs to a gold mosaic in the Dahna mirages.
The shaman's candle flared with tongues of blue flame, now voices
Issue from a smoking wick in the Dahna mirages.
Through waves of heat, forming like a dense cloud in twilight haze,
The teal fog is swirling thick in the Dahna mirages.
With his silhouette edged by radiance, the wayfarer
Utters psalms in Arabic in the Dahna mirages.
Roses shine, the hummingbird's iridescent wings flutter
Through the play of light's magic in the Dahna mirages.
Raindrops glisten like pearls in swaying palms, as Ishmael
Recites the nomad's lyric in the Dahna mirages.
Steffen Horstmann's poems and book reviews have appeared in publications throughout the world, including Baltimore Review, Free State Review, Istanbul Literary Review, Louisiana Literature, Oyez Review, Texas Poetry Journal and Tiferet. He has published two books of ghazals, Jalsaghar (2016) and Ujjain (2017).