Thursday, September 06, 2007

An Alcoholic's Villanelle



"I should like people to read my work and think it was like drinking lemonade, only to find a little later that it was strongly laced. I'd want it to go down like lemonade but to hit them like vodka."
- Alan Brownjohn

An Alcoholic's Villanelle


My liver twisted into disaster

The hours drunkenly spent

Shadows, time lost in a flutter


of chaotic shaking. Accept the fluster,

the poisonous blood stream intent

to twist my kidneys into disaster


I should know better

Shot glasses on counters and empty cabinets

Shadows, time rage in a flutter


The piercing light. The heart beating faster.

Curse this weakness that is evident

The liver twisted like disaster


Morning now, roaches scatter

away from light. Their grievous commitment

to shadows raging in a flutter


On the table a bottle sits like danger

Wounded, writhing, spent

This spine twisted into disaster

Time drifting. Lost in a flutter.


© 2007 Radames Ortiz published in Radiant Turnstile

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