The Last Villanelle

Rohana McCormack

O Villanelle Drear-lirium

Ire-rattling my intelli-fire

Ha-RANG-er me ta tedium?

You doe-loomed me with a cho-ly-strum,

Woe-jured me with symp-a-dire,

O Villanelle DREAR-lirium!

You sto-locked awan my bid-i-thrum

Grue-laughed at my dis-pire.

Ha-rang-er me ta TEDIUM?

I ap-pre-coil at cun-drum-ium,

I wiv-vle in a petro-pyre,

O  VILLANELLE Drearlirium.

Fie foe ! Fee fum !

I cha-lin-guish your mor-tire.

Har-anger ME, ta tedium?

Go skitter-slink to bor-rum-dom.

Go smoffle in your phleg-a-mire.

O  Villanelle Drear-lirium,

Har-anger me? TA! tee-dee-ummm...

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Rohana McCormack received her MA degree from Duke University and studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz, Felix Stefanile, May Swenson and John Woods. She has won awards from Purdue University and Writer’s Digest and has a chapbook, Free Will, The Billiard King and Other Mad Dogmas (Pudding House Publications, 2007). Anthologies include Indiana Sesquicentennial Poets, Indiana Women Poets (edited by Alice Friman), Purdue Miscellany, Passagers 2007, and Hymns to the Outrageous (Pudding House, 2007).

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