When the Neighbors (villanelle)

All the birds wake and I have not slept.
What will this day yield
when the neighbors start fighting again?

Listening to their fights makes me feel inept
like my mood’s a soup on the counter, congealed.
All the birds wake and I have not slept.

To my ears, their decibels have never crept
lower than a jet engine, cacophony and steel,
when the neighbors start fighting again.

So our quiet is, every day, usurped
and I want to hide as the yelling builds.
All the birds wake and I have not slept.

No one more than me is perturbed
that each day begins with another fighting reel
when the neighbors start fighting again.

Each night by nine I’ve leapt,
with water glass, to my melatonin fields.
All the birds wake and I have not slept
when the neighbors start fighting again.

4 thoughts on “When the Neighbors (villanelle)

  1. This is such a good villanelle. One of my favorites that I have read so far. I like that it’s serious, but there’s an underlying humor to it. I think you made interesting word choices here, ones that not everyone would jump to pick, so this was so refreshing to read.

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