What is a Ghazal?
Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. Consisting of syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme. Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet’s rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet). The last couplet includes a proper name, often of the poet’s.

Black Men: A Ghazal
by Patrick J. Derilus

AmeriKKKa loves Black men
meaning, that AmeriKKKa desires Black men

we humans are taught not to cry, as
White supremacist patriarchy reels Black men

not one space to talk our feelings out
It’s always man up, be a man Black men

but when we need people, they fear us
kill us, perceive us as inherent murderers Black men

many of us do not see the cage we’re put in,
so it’s always am I less of a human being, not a man Black men

we’re here to fit a mold or free ourselves to live,
and Patrick’s afterthoughts are what constitutes Black men?