Think Positive

The TV shows me Kenyans dying of drought.

Cattle become skeletal; babies droop.

On facebook people chirrup:  'Life works out.’

The parents of the babes don’t scream or shout.

They weep, but are resigned. Their shoulders stoop.

The TV shows them close up, dying of drought.

Calm commentators tell what it’s about.

I pour myself another bowl of soup.

On facebook people burble: ‘Life works out.’

The self-help gurus urge us, 'Banish doubt!'

I sign a petition, join a spiritual group.

The TV shows me Kenyans dying of drought.

On facebook, though, we know that life works out.

Prompted by dVerse: How to Write a Villanelle (I have written this one a little bit 'wrong'; let's call it a modified villanelle.)

Night, Rain ...

A shimmer, white

against the pane,

at the edge of sight …

Might

it come again,

shimmering, white?

Faint, not bright:

drifting rain

at the edge of sight

dims the light

to a mere stain,

a shimmer of white

pale on the night –

a hidden pain

past the edge of sight.

I seek to deny it,

refuse to entertain

that shimmer of white,
at the edge of sight.

April Poetry Month, day 5. Tuesday Platform at 'imaginary garden with real toads': any topic, with the option (which I took) of writing a villanelle.

The topic is inspired by the latest quadrille prompt at dVerse, to use the word 'shimmer', But I couldn't fit my villanelle into a quadrille, no matter how economical with words I tried to be.

Also submitted (three years later) to dVerse Forms for All – the Villanelle, in the hope that it may still be eligible.