Not sure if I like how this one came out, but I'm posting it anyway. See what you think. It's a villanelle.
The Thing About Mistakes
One thing, at least, is good about mistakes:
We learn by them how not to live our lives.
These errors made but once, we won't remake.
Each day our agonies are fresh, our aches
Are newly forged, as bright and sharp as knives.
One thing, at least, is good about mistakes.
This poison drunk in haste our thirst will slake
For testing what our bodies can survive.
These errors made but once, we won't remake.
Perhaps a time or two our hearts will break,
But surely love will help us to revive.
One thing, at least, is good about mistakes.
The searing words I spat for anger's sake
I won't repeat - will I? - while I'm alive.
These errors made but once, we won't remake.
Oh we'd be victims of the cruelest jape
To wrong each wrong again a hundred times.
One thing there must be good about mistakes.
But errors, once they're made, we make and make. |