Terzanelle For The Night We Met

What trickster god was bored that night?

The improbability of it: a storm, a park, a dozen scattered

souls seeking shelter. Didn’t matter. We followed the light

*

through the rain, soaked and battered

by the time we arrived. Think:

the improbability of it: a storm, a park. A dozen scattered,

*

half lost, fewer found, and one on the brink -

one foot off the path, the other midair.

By the time we arrived, I think

*

we were all convinced we were meant to be there.

You stumbled in after me, unbalanced and flushed;

one foot off the path, the other midair.

*

The space was too small to avoid being crushed,

so we huddled as close as we dared.

You stumbled in after me, unbalanced and flushed;

*

I stuttered and gaped, unprepared.

What trickster god was bored that night

we huddled close as we dared,

souls seeking shelter? Didn’t matter. We followed the light.

The Terzanelle is a poetry type which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima forms. It is a 19-line poem consisting of five interlocking triplets/tercets plus a concluding quatrain in which the first and third lines of the first triplet appear as refrains. The middle line of each triplet is repeated, reappearing as the last line of the succeeding triplet with the exception of the center line of the next-to-the-last stanza which appears in the quatrain. They are a pain in the arse to write. The author blames Conor Darrall for challenging her to write this one.