Hi Susan,
Nice to see you taking on a ghazal. I think this one works well.
In S2, the fishing metaphor of L2 seemed disconnected from L1, but on rereading, I figure maybe 'nets' is intended to relate to the internet. In which case, maybe that'd be better as "searching" rather than "scanning", which also avoids the repetition of "scan" in S7. It maybe opens the reading up more to other kinds of networks (like extended friendship/associate networks for example, for which "scan" doesn't seem to work so well).
S4L1, I wondered why the second sentence is in the past tense not the present. Assuming the friend is still alive, and the ghosting continues, wouldn't "is it" be better?
S7L1, I tend to hear tet:
i SCAN the oBITS for your NAME. Has SOMEone
Read aloud and naturally (well, naturally for me!) I hear S8L2 as pentameter. The full stop breaks up the three consecutive unstressed syllables that would otherwise lead to the middle one ("I've") being promoted.
I did wonder if you might go with "this is where I sign off" in the final sher? Just as a nod to the Takhullus. I mean, only poets will get it, but it's mostly them who read poems
In fact, thinking about a Takhallus, if you wanted one, I wondered if there might be a way to end the poem with something like "signed, my heart", maybe in another sher.
Like Mark, I didn't get the tau reference. My dad had Alzheimer's, but I guess I didn't read up enough on the mechanisms. There might be a way to drop a heavier hint. "Did walls of plaque / construct" might have done it for me. Maybe not. Maybe I'd have thought to teeth
Either way, I wonder if "construct" works better. A maze is already an obstruction/obstacle to reminding their heart.
Matt