Villainelle

Villenelle

VILLAINelle

by Kathleen McGill

I’ll burn the format down to an ember

Just read. You’ll see. Come take your time

Watch the rules and lines dismember

With only a trace of words to remember

This poem shall descend its climb

I’ll burn the format down to an ember

Destroyed a Haiku in the midst of September

Robbed him of syllables, committed a crime

Watch the rules and lines dismember

Conquered a lim’rick one day in November

Tore up the meter, demolished the rhyme

I’ll burn the format down to an ember

I wrecked a cinquain, a night in De-January

A felony I’d call more than sublime

Watch the rules and lines dismember

I burn the format down to an ember

As the rules and lines dismember

I insert here a random couplet

As the poem fades away

The twentieth line an intruder

Yet no matter what I vandalize

How severe the rules I break

Or how many poetic crimes I commit