Ode to Mytyl

Ode to Mytyl

—After The Blue Bird (1940)

My poor girl,

Don’t you know it’s a trick?

Haven’t you heard that once you give it up, they’ll never return it?

But Mytyl,

It’s that damned Berylune

With her fleeting magic

That Light is only an illusion

A gauzy distraction

See how she never steps down the path?

Here’s the problem, love

It’s always been your bluebird they wanted

Babe,

Why shouldn’t we set the world on fire?

I’ve got a match in my back pocket

Tylette had it right

We should have ran

We should have whispered in the trees’ ears

We should have burned the forest to scorched earth

Left those shining children in the clouds

Stop haunting ourselves with unfulfilled premonitions

Mytyl,

My poor girl,

You don’t belong birthing their needs

You would have been better off in black & white

Forget the technicolor

Mytyl,

My love,

We should have snapped the bird’s neck

Pinned the feathers in flight

Raised our dead at midnight

I’d build you a nest of broken bones

I’d let you dream your nights in shades of blue

Just me and you

And on our mantle, your bluebird too

 

Inspired by:

#3 came about while I was reading Mark Stand and Eavan Boland's The Making of a Poem which featured Elizabeth Bishops's One Art. I thought that the poem really played around with the villanelle form and thought maybe I should try that while also addressing my relationship with the tools and themes of my own poems. Still not sure if the poem achieved everything (or anything) I wanted it to do but it's my baby and I love it.”

Emily Perkovich

Emily Perkovich (she/her) is from the Chicago-land area. She is the Editor in Chief of Querencia Press and on the Women in Leadership Advisory Board with Valparaiso University. Her work strives to erase the stigma surrounding trauma victims and their responses. She is a Best of the Net nominee, a SAFTA scholarship recipient, and is previously published with Harness Magazine, Rogue Agent, Coffin Bell Journal, and Awakenings among others. She is the author of the poetry collections Godshots Wanted: Apply Within (Sunday Mornings at the River), The Number 12 Looks Just Like You (Finishing Line Press), baby, sweetheart, honey (Alien Buddha Press), & Manipulate Me, Babe—I Trust You (forthcoming, GutSlut 2023) as well as the novella Swallow. You can find more of her work on IG @undermeyou

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Villanelle #3