1 minute read
A Villanelle by Tabitha Hayward
from Now We Are Five
A Villanelle
I do not know the name Of it, the thing that sits and sings, The tune always the same.
I know it won’t be tamed But plucks on nerves like red-raw strings, I do not know the name,
Only the way it came, With sound of bells that ring and ring, The tune always the same.
If there’s someone to blame, Who grasps the heart and wrings and wrings, I do not know the name,
Only that sharp shard of flame, The freezing burning that it brings, The tune always the same.
So perhaps it has no aim And all these wounds are random things. I do not know the name, Or the tune, always the same.
Tabitha Hayward
112
