The Late Night Villanelle

Guess what comes of a Thursday night hopped up and full of caffeine, my friends? That's right, a villanelle--otherwise known as writing done in the world's most difficult poetic form. Inspired by love, sponsored by Diet Coke.

Becky Adams
My Lover's Actions

My love is a magnolia tree
dripping scent,
and full of bees

who settle down among its leaves
like campers in an airy tent.
My love, like a magnolia tree

is blind and deaf. It can't see
or hear the messages it's sent,
except through humming of the bees

who come for what it breathes.
To accurately represent
my love as a magnolia tree

is to impart the tragedy
of needing to depend
on bees,

on anything that stings and feeds
off beauty's stupid innocence.
My love is a magnolia tree,
flowering and full of bees.