Silvanellia Plath

Silvanellia Plath (A Tribute)

Write a villanelle? I’d rather hide my head
And put to sleep unwanted thought
In a gas stove or feathered bed

The repetition turns me into lead
Framed in the stanchions of its taunt
Write a villanelle? I’d rather hide my head

Nineteen lines and just two rhymes are fed
A double refrain that makes my mind its haunt
Its gas stove, or perhaps its feathered bed

The villanelle is made to haunt the dead
And remind them of the ways in which they offed
The villanelles once hidden in their heads

I’m carefully looking over what I’ve said
Fowl or fair it’s plucked from what I caught
For a gas stove or feathered bed

I’m leaving now, I do it with some dread
It’s not because I enjoyed this a lot
Write a villanelle? I’d rather hide my head
In a gas stove (forget about the bed)