First things first

Day 23: "today’s (optional) prompt takes its inspiration from Kiki Petrosino’s loose villanelle, “Nursery.” Try your hand today at your own take on a villanelle, and have the poem end on a question."

Now,  I  rather like a villanelle,  but it is very tricky.   For those of you who are asking yourself WHAT??? the villanelle is a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain. In addition, there is a regular rhyme scheme of aba. 


First things first

The clothes rotate in the washing machine, 
There's dirt on the floor, dishes in the sink,
I know everything needs to get clean. 

It's in the worst state it ever has been
Creeping up slowly, it's now at the brink, 
So clothes rotate in the washing machine.

I'm preoccupied, have turned my back on routine, 
Focused on poems. True, the house doesn’t stink, 
But everything needs to get clean.

My husband has offered to intervene,
Do some dusting! With his chest? I don't think! 
Now our clothes rotate in the washing machine

While I sit here powered by sun and caffeine,
Crafting this villanelle: Think brain, think!
Soon everything needs to get clean.

The words come at last, polished to a sheen,
Dusting gets done, dishes washed, messes shrink,
As more clothes rotate in the washing machine,
Can I finally get everything clean?


© Copyright 2026. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved





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