My first ghazal: Russet Stain

I want to share with you my first attempt at a ghazal, a poem I wrote many years ago.

All of the death and tragedy in the world these days is bringing me back to what I was feeling when I wrote this:

Russet Stain

Somber feathers glide aloft, tonight.
Mourners abide in eternal pain, tonight.

Crimson rivers overflow tense fields,
sorrow souls drift with conceit, tonight.

Flags held high and deaths galore,
only carnage is left to gain, tonight.

Melancholy tears echo God’s pain,
hearts embedded with a russet stain, tonight.

The pearly flag is tardily drawn.
Cries of defeat are heard again, tonight.

And I, the gaper, can only denounce.
My heart sobs. I am Gandhi tonight.

-A