The River

a villanelle, in which the rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

There was a river where a desert had been

and the river had once flowed with life.

It showed that it once was a place of sin.

The river and he road that stretched along it was together parallel or akin.

The waters pure and blue yet quicksand lurked beneath the waters and the valley beyond that were interlocking like a husband and a wife.

No doubt where the river flowed and flowers bloomed where it had been.

When you looked at me as I told you that you just had to grin.

I had a dream that you had told me all the adventures of your life.

About your travels through myth and legends and how I was soon to have your kin.

I don’t know how or where you had been;

But I love everything about you and I will continue to love you like I was your wife through your pillages and your strife.

Please say you’ll love me for a man who listens to the wind and soul and of your haunted heart full of djinn.

I loved you by the river that once flowed through the desert where you’ve been.

The deserts full of sand were full of animals and lush, green wildlife.

Waiting to wake again before the sun came and had brung wind, sand, dust and time in.

The souls of the many people who lived in the desert where life and the river had once been could not compare to the land where they’ve once had been said to fill the land with hatred and sin.

The heat was hot, the ground dry with no signs of life.

The desert waiting to be awakened again in the land of sin.

Looking for purity; looking within.