Hope Strums Her Harp

a villanelle I've been working on for a while... inspired by this painting:

Hope   1885   George Frederick Watts

  Hope strums her harp and sits astride the world.

  A blindfold keeps her focused as the sound

of peace and mercy’s fragile flags unfurl.

 As music from the hemlock trees uncurls

as unresolved boundaries still resound,

 Hope strums her harp and sits astride the world.

 While syllables of weapons clash and whirl

 while oceans twist with Fukushima waste,

 still  peace and mercy’s fragile flags unfurl.

With music smooth and cool as oystered pearl

 Pacific tides blunt poison gas until

 Hope strums her harp and sits astride the world

 This time let no trench gas grenades be hurled.

  The ship won’t meet the iceberg this time round.

 Hope strums her harp and sits astride the world

 as peace and mercy’s fragile flags unfurl.