The Clock is Ticking
A Villanelle
by Cristina Nehring (May 2025)
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My fearless child, go play in the bright
Corners of our wintering town.
Before we breathe twice it shall be night
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The lives of your breed are rarely long
And your mother’s time will never exceed
Your own. My fearless child go play in the bright
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Let us fete every ray of sun that we catch
Let us stay in that circle of light
Before we breathe twice it shall be night.
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When the time comes, we’ll go into the shadows
Together: We’re an indivisible pair at the end as at advent.
My fearless child go play in the bright.
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We hold dearest what we have a short while
A trial or triumph; it’s hard to distinguish
But before we breathe twice it shall be night.
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We will trade time for beauty
In each chapter of our lives.
My fearless child go play in the bright.
Before we breathe twice it shall be night.
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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. See more at www.cristinanehring.net.
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