Queen of Winter

A Villanelle

Crown me Queen of Winter in your absence
with thorns of maple sweet like pancakes
that I have not been able to taste since

you left this Earth because the fog was dense
and my mother’s love stopped giving and takes
crown me Queen of Winter in your absence!

Cold infernal reign with an iron fist
eating my placenta upon Beaver Lake
that I have not been able to taste since

we danced in the Spring and picked hyacinths
and now that is all gone and my heart breaks
crown me Queen of Winter in you absence.

But I still speak to you in present tense,
I’m not letting go, even if it’s fake,
but I have not been able to taste since

the toast of your funeral feast rinsed
my sobbing to heaven for pity’s sake
so I have not been able to taste since
they crowned me Queen of Winter in your absence.