ghazal: "final chips"

Are you serious?   I must steal from you   the secret of how to love you?
once pocketed   I might reveal to you   the secret of how to love you

we teeter at edge of absurd designs!   the river a'flood with puzzles
float down   hearing my lone appeal to you   the secret of how to love you

in a gamble that none but you and I would recognize   at this table
final chips await (spin the wheel will you?)   the secret of how to love you

blithe years had passed   we began every sentence blindly   always uncertain
what card quiet hands might yet deal   knew you the secret of how to love you?

illusions ran deep   dim narratives curl & wind out of nightlong dreamstuff
fogged mirrors obscuring what's real   who knew the secret of how to love you?

who dine on despair remain circumspect   what rule of the game mightn't shift?
the more knots undone   the less we'll undo the secret of how to love you

who pray bow resigned who dream lie supine   who imagine ponder clouddrift
stray traces of orange or teal   imbue the secret   of how to love you

the world forgot poetry almost   would we need to reinvent the wheel?
dark language   alike woe & weal   hides too   the secret of how to love you

wave on darkling wave   incessant   fierce   oceanic currents grown fearsome
one offers both sail and keel to you   the secret of how to love you

would Raphael beg like a vagabond?   his notion wasn't to wander
his poetry shows how I feel for you   the secret of how to love you