False Hope (A Villanelle for a Cold, Wet Spring)

The villanelle form, in case you don't know it, is:
5 x tercets (3-line stanzas) which rhyme aba
1 x concluding quatrain (4-line stanza) which rhymes abaa
 
There are also repeated lines in villanelles - the first line of the first stanza becomes the last line of stanzas 2 and 4, and the third line of the concluding quatrain; the last line of the first stanza becomes the last line of stanzas 3 and 5, and the last line of the quatrain. This repetition helps to tie the themes of the poem together in ways that can be quite beautiful and haunting.

False Hope (A Villanelle for a Cold, Wet Spring)

a child looks at the sky and says it cries,
water floods, relentless, through the grey
the calendar says spring, but oh, it lies.

daily, weather gurus will advise
another drear of working time, not play,
a child looks at the sky and says it cries.

if summer comes, it wears a deep disguise,
warm air withheld, in sour-faced grim delay
the calendar says spring, but oh, it lies.

sad people of the sun, whose mood relies
on the touch of heat on skin in every day,
a child looks at the sky and says it cries.

and here we thought we'd bid our last goodbyes
to the winter spirit's frosty, hard display
the calendar says spring, but oh, it lies.

we wait, and wait, and wait for cold's demise
for rising summer and the year's decay.
a child looks at the sky and says it cries.
the calendar says spring, but oh, it lies.

- Kathy, 13/11/2013

This is post 13 in NaBloPoMo. 13 down, 17 to go!