a Villanelle
by J. Patrick Lewis
Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.
~Seneca
Let caution be cachet of your memoir:
The metaphor for life? A carousel.
There is no easy way from earth to star.
You hawk museum copies of Renoir
By day; by night, the stuff of bagatelle.
Let caution be cachet of your memoir.
Who cares about your favorite oyster bar,
Blue whispers in the dark, the kiss-and-tell?
There is no easy way from earth to star.
Ignore the antics of a repertoire
That will not warm to any reader well.
Let caution be cachet of your memoir.
Telling the truth won't get you very far;
Dissembling isn't likely to compel.
There is no easy way from earth to star.
Better yet, keep everything you are
Mysteriously dumb as a tongueless bell.
Let caution be cachet of your memoir.
There is no easy way from earth to star.