Back Country Villanelle

my leather heart paperweight

two repeating rhymes chambered

in a wilderness on fire

and breath and eyes against the gate

against the day a single word

my leather heart paperweight

wanting nothing, only waiting

the sublime and the absurd

my wilderness on fire

a chambered heart, forget-me-not

this hearth, this home, this portmanteau

this leather-hearted paperweight

forcing down the rusted wreck

words lost inside of other words

the ash, the sham, the shame

repeating rhymes, a rusted wreck

the shame, the scam, the loss of ash

left in this wilderness on fire

my weathered heart paperweight 

[LSS/RK, 10/7/23]