Swept Away - a Villanelle

October 2019

I wonder how lovely it must be

to have the will to live long enough to own a yard,

and to only worry about the trees.

How are they growing? Are there bees?

Thoughts always seem to bombard

me about how lovely it must be.

I would lay out, listening to the waves of leaves,

only interrupted by my St. Bernard

worrying about the bone he hid by the trees.

Flowers would overwhelm the land, in bloom constantly,

like a scene on a postcard

of how lovely it must be

to live somewhere so carefree.

Somewhere where life is never hard,

where you only have to worry about the trees.

When the night sky moves in with the sea

and fireflies light the boulevard

I’ll know how lovely it must be

to only have to worry about the trees.