Is there a Broom for Me?
2008-04-01John Mortola
In the Style of HafizDiscovery

Is there a Broom for Me?

Oh please may I follow your caravan,

and savor the sweetness of your camels' droppings

as they circle the Earth...

As they pause to release their golden rain

upon the thirsty wayfarers.


Oh Please, let me carry the broom to sweep

the stray morsels off their cosmic path.

And water them and massage their feet

at the end of the day.


Then, while they rest, perhaps I will sip a bit

from their golden casks,

Just to lighten their loads.


Inspiration / Author Note

This is one of the early poems in the style of Hafiz. If you don't know his work, you may be quite confused by this and others like it. The metaphors of a caravan traversing the cosmos and golden wine being purloined in the dead of night find their context in 14th century Persia when Sufism was out of favor and references to the search for enlightenment needed to be obscured in playful rhyme.