A Villanelle

We are learning poetry. We're learning the different forms. Our first real poetry assignment was to write a villanelle - this link isn't from class but it explains it well. This was my attempt. The class actually liked it.

A Second Term

My life continues as if on a dragon's flight,
And as my foot slips from the stirrup, cold,
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Is my fall from the mounting or the fight?
Or is it from the faint words I hear, so bold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

I struggle through the challenge with all my might.
Straining against the outcome, foretold.
Still I tumble head first into the darkest night.

My soul, feeling the meaning, is frozen with fright
as the mother falters under the red mold.
Yet my life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

Why must the mother endure such a slight?
Where are her champions of old?
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Have they all converted to the conservative right?
Is there no champion left to remove the blindfold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.
Still, I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Kate Humphrey