Afterlife

A Villanelle

by Cristina Nehring (October 2024)

Tears of Love I (Giorgio de Chirico, 1960)

 

I checked the clock and wandered through;
The gates of hell were open wide;
I kept on going through the flames that grew.
=
It was my moment; my lover could not be replaced by another so true.
He preceded me through those notorious gates
I checked my watch and wandered  through.
=
I knew I was early; I was happy to queue
To see him ahead, my heart’s costly core;
I just kept on walking through the flames that grew.
=
He was a quarter century older than I, I knew;
I feared for his passing each hour most days,
But when he traversed those damned gates, I checked my clock and I followed him through.
=
My beloved, I need you:
Let me find your burnt hand
I just kept on walking through the flames that grew.
=
Never in the afterlife could I eschew
Under any conditions my passion for you,
Which is why I checked my clock and wandered through
To hell with you. I kept on walking though the flames that grew.
=

Table of Contents

 

Cristina Nehring‘s most recent book is The Child Who Never Spoke: 23 1/2 Lessons in Fragility. She is also the author of A Vindication of Love which made the front page of the New York Times Book Review as well as two books in French. She writes for  Atlantic, Harper’s, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Paris with her daughter.

Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast