Monday, April 23, 2018

Villanelle: Just Before the Battle of Aughrim

Green pagoda shelter, yellow jungle gym.
Woman in a turquoise top, walking her dog.
How would it be for me to give myself to Him?
Jesus’s bristly whiskers need a trim.
Dog’s in a halter.—So? What kind of dog?
by the green pagoda shelter, yellow jungle gym?
I’m not afraid to go out on a limb
and say that woman walks a pit-bull dog.
How would it be for me to give myself to Him?
I’d buy a rose with a long thorny stem
and gift it to that woman and that dog,
by this green shelter, yellow jungle gym.
All the dead Irish in the Battle of Aughrim!
Floppy ears not cropped on that bull hound!
How would it be for me to give myself to Him?
Nothing remains now but a pretty flim-
sy tale about the breeding of that spotted dog,
trotting past the green-and-yellow jungle gym.
How would it be for me to give myself to Him?