ghazal ("my life")

I wouldn't go   so far as to say   I've wasted my life
if bitterly   yet sweetly today   I've tasted my life

in editing   the author of fate   shows surgical zeal
it's startling   how cutting away   he's pasted my life

on pilgrimage   the shoes must be shed   & then you bow low
at every step   it's proper to pray   while pacing through life

in youth I leaned   toward falling in love   at drop of a hat
grown old   how draw (she shoos me away)   her waiste in my life?

why needle me?   I'm mixing the brew   that bubbles with joy!
your poison glance   with little dismay   is laced in my life

if news-breaks blare   some newspapers say "the blood flowed like ink"
with dawn's quiet crack   can none your soiree   erase from my life

exploring roadways rarely described   on regular maps
aren't finest pearls   if widely I stray   encased in my life?

at fifty   can you mount new careers   in painting & film?
dismount time   is when Yama's display   is placed in my life

why's Raphael   a'brew with fat plans   embracing the globe?
a slender moon   with branches a'sway   I've faced in my life