A Slight Persuasion

 

A collaborative villanelle…

 

Are there words that I could say
To bring you to my arms this night?
I know it’s true you cannot stay,

 

And yet if you should walk away,
The pleasure lost would not be slight…
Are there words that I could say,

 

To calm your soul, your doubts allay,
So reservations may take flight?
I know it’s true you cannot stay

 

But what we could do… If I may?
Unveil this body to your sight…
Are there words that I could say?

 

We’d fly full-force into the fray
To drown among the sheets so white —
I know it’s true you cannot stay.

 

Yet dearest, I would have you lay
Beside me… If I shape them right,
Are there words that I could say?
I know it’s true; you cannot stay.

 

*****

Roshani T. Anandappa & M.A. Mohanraj
September 25, 1997