Rachel Rose

A Wedding Ghazal

A man loves a man in a silent room.
A man holds a man in a breathless room.

What is the price of an afternoon?
A man holds a man in a breathless room.

The light is gone, but a slender moon
sheds its silver in a breathless room.

The day of blessings is coming soon
when boyfriends become husbands in a sanctified room.

What family blessings can shift to make room
for two men vowing true love in a sacred room?

In spirit I walk with you through roses' perfume
as a small girl throws petals in a joyful room.

Take up your pride. Let freedom bloom
as two men become married before a witnessing room.

Let them dance! Let us dance! Let the groom and the groom
love and be cherished in a radiant room.







Rachel Rose is a dual American/Canadian citizen whose work has appeared in various journals in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand and Japan, including Poetry, The Malahat Review, and The Best American Poetry, as well as numerous anthologies. Her most recent book, Song & Spectacle (2012) won the Audre Lorde Poetry Award in the U.S. and the Pat Lowther Award in Canada. She is the winner of the Peterson Memorial Prize for poetry and the Bronwen Wallace award for fiction, and the recipient of a 2014 Pushcart Prize. She is the Poet Laureate of Vancouver for 2014-2017.