Kneeling Villanelle

by Daniel O’Connell

One thing and one thing, reality is surreal.
Order is armor and I bare my thin throat.
It is to this jumbled world that I kneel.

I run my wrinkled fingers across stainless steel;
I am bound by space and time, and I float, I float.
One thing and one thing, the world is surreal.

Airplane, Mar’s probe, rickety cart and wheel;
I admire and ignore what The Philosopher wrote.
It is to this jumbled world that I kneel.

Bovine cells cloned in labs, surf rod and reel,
Microwaved tofu meals and sacrificial goat.
One thing and one thing, our world is surreal.

Self-immolated monk, politicians’ false zeal;
I know the moral law within, learned it by rote.
It is to this jumbled world that I kneel.

All types and times exist together and reveal
Dissonance as music, chord and note.
One thing and one thing, the real and the real,
It is to this world, this jumble, that I kneel.