Mama! The fireworks don’t delight me anymore,
How long should we play games of pretend?
Scary it seems, the world outside the door.

I feel frequent vibration across the floor,
You ask me to stay put behind windows curtained,
Mama! The fireworks don’t delight me anymore.

Forever we stay within the walls four,
It’s been a long time since I’ve met any friend,
Scary it seems, the world outside the door.

You read out stories of fantasy and lore,
Tell me! Will there be a saviour , ‘godsend’?
Mama! The fireworks don’t delight me anymore.

You shield my eyes from all the gore,
Convince me that things torn will slowly mend,
Scary it seems, the world outside the door.

You hug me to say ‘ A bright future is in store!’
And assure me that soon the war will end,
But Mama! The fireworks don’t delight me anymore,
Scary it seems, the world outside the door.

***
POETRY STYLE: VILLANELLE

The Villanelle is known for its repeated lines and a refrain. It consists of five tercets and a quatrain (6 stanzas or 19 lines in total). The form is expressed this way:

A1 b A2 (1st tercet)

a b A1 (2nd tercet)

a b A2 (3rd tercet)

a b A1 (4th tercet)

a b A2 (5th tercet)

a b A1 A2 (a quatrain; last stanza-serves as the poem’s concluding lines)

The capitals are for the refrains and lowercase letters are for the rhymes.