"A Serious Matter" is a free-verse-ish or "loose" villanelle.
A Serious Matter
by Michael R. Burch
Listen, love, it’s a serious matter:
I love you better despite the fetter.
I love you madder than any hatter.
Now even though you’re my chains’ begetter
and keep me your slave with that braless sweater,
I love you better despite the fetter.
You say you’re afraid that you’re getting “fatter,”
but your curves are my lust’s prime aider and abettor.
Listen, love, it’s a serious matter.
I love you madder than any hatter.
When you come to bed in sheer lace, my thoughts scatter:
first to the firmer, then to the latter.
I love you better despite the fetter.
I love you madder than any hatter.
Listen, love, it’s a serious matter!
Keywords/Tags: villanelle, love, love hurts, mad, madness, slave, slavery, lust, passion, desire, curves, lace, bed, chain, chains, fetter, fetters, ties that bind, mad hatter, madder than a hatter
before life begins
we accrue fictional sins
so guilt always wins
lest any deem themselves free
to alter reality
dollars and distance
do not measure existence
despite persistence
constant debt all but assured
within this credit card world
is living better
starting off as a debtor
shame's main abettor
always in the negative
when all else is relative
to death all succumb
becoming what we become
in part and in sum
being soon enough degrades
until last remembrance fades
like the dinosaur
the future won't fear our roar
care what we abhor
leaving only the remains
produced by once human brains
'Tis I, your ruin ...
I, the scourge, unseen ... the "C" word
I am death's abettor, the bête noire
So do your worst, in my ruthless wake
The cold chaos of cells that rages rampant
Weaponizing blood and bone and marrow ... and breath
Seething untrammeled as the burn of abandon, afire
I play no favorites, I see no chalk or choice
Health is the meat of my prerogative, the blood of my intent
I strip vitality and strength from bones like a butcher
And hang them raw to be branded ... "terror"
I scrape beauty and flesh to maim motherhood, passion
I divest masculinity of its vital seed, choke the air from lungs, gasping
I ravage little lives before they begin, to glaze their sparkling eyes
I plunder and rape and kill in a thousand myriad fashions
One no less callous or malevolent than the other
And the only weapons you have to raise against me - your only hopes
Are near as vicious and unappeasable as I am, (smiling)
Oh, hear me and fear me, humankind ...
I am chasing, relentless ... your ruin.
~ 5th Place ~ in the "Topic Of Cancer" Poetry Contest, Craig Cornish, Judge & Sponsor.
“Do Not Accept” life as it is, make it better
Life and evolution have amazed us forever
D stands for “Devotion”
N for a new “Notion”
A stands for “Aider” and also “Abettor”
DNA... DO NOT ACCEPT life as it is, make it better
Life and evolution have amazed us forever
D stands for DEVOTION
N stands for a bright new NOTION
A stands for AIDER and ABETTOR
"Order, Order, All rise"
The voice echoes like an aftermath;
Bringing a chill to the Atmosphere.
As the highest in authority infiltrates the inhabited chambers.
to the commoner, I am known simply as Magistrate or Judge;
To the elite, Adjudicator, Expert Connoisseur.
All walks of life situate themselves before me with one thing customary ILLEGALITY!!!
With the aid of my two abettor solicitors, whom have rehearsed their part in this cavort.
One to vindicate the appellant,
The other to arraign arbitration without plausible dilemmas.
listening to the monotonous rigmarole, on and on and on,
Mutter, mutter, mutter:
The thrill of just banging the hammer, interrupting the nattering and shouting:
" LIFE IN BONDAGE, OR TO THE GALLOWS OR HANG HIM TILL HIS DEAD!"
Appeals to my better nature.
For I see it, who so ever stands before me should suffer maximum punishment;
Be he innocent or guilty, he should not have got caught.
But, alas, the cat has to give the mouse a sporting chance,
Then I will make my judgement swift and quick.......