Sestina:
A French syllabic form consisting of six sestets and a final three-line stanza called the envoi. The stanzas turn not on terminal rhymes but on the repetition in an elaborate established order of six terminal words. The standard arrangement of the terminal words in the sestets is:
abcdef faebdc cfdabe ecbfad deacfb bdfeca.
In the envoi, one end-word is buried in each line and one concludes each line: the envoi’s pattern is be dc fa. The lines may be of any single length.
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The angel went and told Joseph
not to leave Mary, so biting
my nails I wait for my angel to fly
in and bring to me my love;
To be happy again, lying in these sheets
with him by my side and returned to my dream.
There he lies half asleep and dreaming
We have no children yet he is Father Joseph
waking every morning from the shared sheets.
Though now a cold wind bites
I imagine warmer days with his love
and in the yard our children chase a fly.
Every Spring we’d see his parents; fly
to Ohio where histories of lives and dreams
are recorded in memories of couples in love.
One page is left out- the one of me and Joseph.
Generations of lovers and I bite
my lip to know we will not be written upon those sheets.
Winter has frozen the world and sheets
of ice fall from the roof. As they fly
down they spear my heart and bite
at my mind in memories and dreams
of warmer days I had spent with Joseph.
Days were never cold with his love.
Sunsets in June; in each other’s arms making love
and talking over lemonade, kicking the sheets
to the floor. I was his wife, he was my Joseph.
Melted chocolate attracting every fly;
buckets of Heavenly Hash and Vanilla Dreams.
Laughing, we take every truffle in just one bite.
Alone, deserted, isolated because of one bite;
Cold, and denied true love.
Each day dragging on, this shattered dream
continuing. My head buries under the sheets,
into my pillow and the buzzing of a fly
drones incessantly- there is no more Joseph.
The cold is biting and I find no protection under these sheets
If I could have my love my depression would fly
far away. Only in my dreams will I see my Joseph
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