On the Tarmac
The windsock flutters like a fish
suspended in a hazy bowl.
I close my eyes and vainly wish
that my mind, too, could dip and swish
freely from a steady pole.
The windsock flutters like a fish.
Running late, I dropped a dish,
let it hurtle through the towel.
I closed my eyes and vainly wished
not to be twenty-nine and rich,
but rippling, sunstruck, in my soul.
The windsock flutters like a fish.
The engines roar, the airplane lifts.
I grab the seatback for control,
close my eyes and vainly wish
that my temperament would switch—
ah—to butter melting on a roll
or a windsock fluttering like a fish.
I close my eyes. In vain, I wish.
—Tania Runyan
✨ Read more villanelles in How to Write a Form Poem…
From How to Write a Form Poem: A Guided Tour of 10 Fabulous Forms,
, Copyright © 2021. Used by permission of T. S. Poetry Press. Photo by Nopparuj Lamaikul, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.
I remember this one from the book! (One, incidentally, I often refer to when writing form poetry.)
"that my temperament would switch—
ah—to butter melting on a roll"