Another flashback from my college poetry class that was, once again, used as a character study. I’ve forgotten the finer details of this story, but looking back over this poem, I kind of want to find my old outlines. This type of poem is called a villanelle–it’s made up of five tercets (stanzas with three lines) and one quatrain (five lines). The rhyme scheme consists of only two different sounds. It also includes two different lines repeated throughout the poem.

He considered her from the motel floor,

While on the bed, she cried for what had been,

And they lamented their failure once more.

She was all he had been taught to abhor:

Reckless heart and tattoo and too much skin.

He considered her from the motel floor.

She was like no girl he had seen before:

Boyish hair and eyes so wide he could fall in.

And they lamented their failure once more.

She reminded him of fairy tale lore:

A princess waiting for life to begin.

He considered her from the motel floor.

Though like a maiden in a tower for

Years, she had not found her fairy tale end.

And they lamented their failure once more.

As a girl, she’d loved all the princess lore

But life had taught her not to hope to win.

He considered her from the motel floor–

And they lamented their failure once more.    

Copyright Sarah Davidson 2020