Perfection In A Mother [Terzanelle]

She stands tall and proud with eyes of blue,
And she paints an ivory smile onto her face,
She stands tall and proud with eyes of blue.

The life lines beside her eyes, she stands to trace,
As her skin ages with perfection each day,
And she paints an ivory smile onto her face.

She paces back and forth, trying to find a way -
To cope with her pain while holding strong for me,
As her skin ages with perfection each day.

She's been broken down to an undeniable degree,
Left on her own with no money to survive, finding a way
To cope with her pain while holding strong for me.

And in her head, she still replays the agonizing day,
He chose the drugs over her, decided to turn his back -
Left on her own, with no money to survive, finding a way.

In the flawless wall around her heart, there's not a crack,
She stands tall and proud with eyes of blue,
He chose the drugs over her, decided to turn his back -
She stands tall and proud with eyes of blue.

-Jenna Elphick
June 9, 2007

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The Terzanelle is a poetry type which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima forms. It is a 19-line poem consisting of five interlocking triplets/tercets plus a concluding quatrain in which the first and third lines of the first triplet appear as refrains. The middle line of each triplet is repeated, reappearing as the last line of the succeeding triplet with the exception of the center line of the next-to-the-last stanza which appears in the quatrain.

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