Flaming Sheep: A Nightmare Villanelle by Toni Cross

 

Pulsing through my mind is nothing but fear

Running from a dream that stalks the edges of my sleep

I’m screaming and screaming where no one can hear

 

From the darkness, faces are pausing to leer

I fight towards consciousness, but I’m in too deep

Pulsing through my mind is nothing but fear

 

In this careening night, there’s no one to steer

I’m slipping on a cliff that is slick and too steep

I’m screaming and screaming where no one can hear

 

Wild flame of thought burning swift to sear

No counting can be done as I stare at blazing sheep

Pulsing through my mind is nothing but fear

 

Reality is thin; like oxygen it’s sheer

Bolting my eyes tightly, I will not steal a peep

I’m screaming and screaming where no one can hear

 

Fast breath, slow breath, gasping, acrid hot and clear

Daring into nothing, I quickly, blindly leap

Pulsing through my mind is nothing but fear

I’m screaming and screaming where no one can hear

 

 

What is a villanelle?

“The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating
rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a
quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated
alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final
stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines.”

For more, go to: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5796

 

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