Five: Villanelle

Definition: a villanelle is a 19-line poem with the following rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The first and third lines in the first stanza repeat in alternating order in the last lines of each subsequent stanza, and also appear together in the last 2 lines of the poem.

Stationery


You are a Post-it note inside my head:
scribbled in pencil, so tempting to erase,
a fading reminder of words that could be said.

If I dared, I could outline you in Red-
tracing your faint, graphite smudges in place-
you are a Post-it note inside my head.

A papery obligation I have grown to dread,
your presence, a scar upon my face,
a fading reminder of words that could be said.

I could simply ignore you, but instead
I absently doodle upon you more lies and lace
--you are a Post-it note inside my head.

You, once bullet point to be read,
are now a thought bubble I cannot chase,
a fading reminder of words that could be said.

Our marked impermanence has bled
through our story, now merely a trace.
You are a Post-it note inside my head,
a fading reminder of words that could be said.