A Form of Love/Hate By Karen Poppy

A Form of Love/Hate

No one likes a villanelle,
Not really—but everybody,
Everybody, loves a villanelle.

Lines tight, wrought too well.
No room for true creativity,
No one likes a villanelle.

Though creativity can creep and swell
Through cracks like truth, truly.
So, everybody loves a villanelle.

Something here to rhyme pell-mell.
Who cares? Nobody.
No one likes a villanelle.

The truth, its own losing hell.
We cling to structure, form, conventionality.
Everybody says they love a villanelle.

No one likes a villanelle.
Confining, stodgy wool sweater.
Everybody loves a villanelle,
But to unravel it, more clever!

A non-binary poet, Karen Poppy has work published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her chapbooks CRACK OPEN/EMERGENCY (2020) and OUR OWN BEAUTIFUL BRUTALITY (2021) are both published by Finishing Line Press. Her chapbook, EVERY POSSIBLE THING, is published by Homestead Lighthouse Press (2020). An attorney licensed in California and Texas, Karen Poppy lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.