Ichor weeps and catches throat,
Baby’s breath in bouquets choke,
Lilies border brusque brown reeds,
Elegant women model weeds.
Wives watch and wait and pray for
Husband’s wallets come what may.
Spouses with their money out may
Touch a thickly whiskery throat.
Women, wondrous women, watch for
The fetching, retching red-faced choke.
Fragrant lilies see the weeds,
Listen to fluting flautist reeds.
Hear them briefly, rustic reeds,
Standing proud, bowing deep. We may
See desire for widow’s weeds;
Diamond necklets round the throat
And they watch the husband choke.
It’s now been worth the wait, for
Red-faced, breathless, overweight, for
Lilies touching brusque brown reeds,
Hear the gasping rasping choke,
Flutter stuttering as they may,
Slim white hands held to their throat,
They prepare for widow’s weeds.
As they prepare for widow’s weeds,
The husbands’ time approaches, for
Poisoned mushrooms in the throat,
Found before you get to reeds,
A faerie ring so pretty may
Hide the powerful ichor, choke
The very life from husbands, choke.
So he dies and she finds weeds,
Widow’s weeds to ensconce may
Promote sympathy and sorrow for
They know not what before the reeds.
Know not the mushrooms in his throat.
Choke is what they do today for
Reeds can wait and wait they may,
Weeds on widows taughten throat.
Polly Robinson © 2013
Fashion Model in Black and White (Photo credit: BiggerPictureImages.com)
I started this sestina at Arvon and have just completed it. For those who are interested in the form, a sestina is a structured 39-line poetic form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three-line stanza, known either as an envoi or tornada. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern. The sestina is an example of a complex fixed verse form.
Posted for dVerse with Joe Hesch tending bar on Open Link Night Week 79
