Joshua Gage

Ghazal


-after H. P. Lovecraft


Beneath a gibbous moon, I dream I dive with tentacles.

Come the belch of dawn, my soul is revived with tentacles.

 

A fetid stench lingers on this harbor town.

The pulse of stygian waves seems to writhe with tentacles.

 

The tome that brought me here speaks its prophecies;

only faithful acolytes survive with tentacles.

 

Let the eldritch sea begin its demonic boil.

Let this festering port become a hive of tentacles.

 

My Pilgrimage complete, I must now bear witness.

I dip my quill and write my unholy archive with tentacles.

Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, Ethiopian coffee, and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs.