Why 13 days? Because that’s how long my kids are out of school!
Here’s my attempt at a villanelle. Every rhyme is shamelessly pilfered from the song “Try to Remember” from the first musical I ever saw, “The Fantasticks.” It is an impure villanelle, like some of the ones you featured on Tweet Speak Poetry.
ODE TO “THE FANTASTICKS”
When that ember is about to billow,
I do try to remember.
Like a fallen star, I follow
on a morning stretched yellow —
the solstice of December,
when those embers begin to billow.
But soon enough for one so callow
come those earnest days of September.
Like a timid schoolgirl, I follow
hard and don’t weep as I hollow
a winter gourd in late October,
when the embers want to billow.
My soul is anything but mellow
especially in the fury of November.
Like a turkey to the slaughter, I follow.
And there beside my pillow
I keep my dreams of a fresh December,
where the embers always billow.
And, like a virgin in love, I follow.
