Villanelle

Written more than fifty years ago but unfortunately still topical

The singing wires search the sky
And hold on leash the leaping flame;
And if they loose the flame, we die.

And if our eyes their songs deny,
Ours is the weakness, ours the shame;
The singing wires search the sky

If they should sing of flames that fly
Candles will light in Moloch’s name
And if they loose the flame, we die.

Beyond the clouds like glass, so high
The air is black, the heavens tame
The singing wires search the sky

And if the singing wires lie
They loose to kill the prisoned flame
And if they loose the flame, we die.

Above the clouds the birds still fly
And still the air, and all the same.
The singing wires search the sky
And if they loose the flame, we die.