a Tear for a Toss

Form: a new challenge? or a suffocating restriction? For the students of Skagway's AP class, writing in traditional form would hopefully help them to recognize the subtle techniques and statements one can control through the form of a poem. Here is my first ever 'published' poem, a villanelle. Enjoy :)

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed

Sweet Nectar coated hands to never touch again

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Damp wings beat against the glass without end

Dawn reveals colored husk to never hatch children;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Dew drops clung to fallen leaves and the dead

Dark bone, cracked by an axe. Layers of rings, the grain

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Dimming spots, like a river, bled and bled

Down into the dust, the goddess of felines slain;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Distant bird calls, screeches; they have all fled

Dark painted people, moving on, ways forgotten

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Grey sky parted, pouring rain the color red

Never enough moisture to quench the parched earth. Again

That damned peach pit tossed into the sea before bed!
If not this, what are tears for?
When, if ever, should they be shed?