Villanelle: Valentine

Discreetly-singing valentine

song played by a tamborine
villanelle that hears Love’s rhymes.

In deep not-prayer or after-crime
Love hollows out Their diamond mine
discreetly-singing valentine.

Pattern of a vanished time
Love rhymes with Love alone, say I,
villanelle that hears Love’s rhymes.

Habitable life, gray husbandman,
beauty no enemy but time,
discreetly sing your valentine.

I, your silly creel-man,
spin shadows vaguely traced in brine
villanelles that hear Love’s rhymes.

Deeply-tasted sorrow-can,
beloved face soon lost as found,
discreetly-singing valentine,
villanelle that hears Love’s rhymes.