This poem came out of the January 22, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from kelkyag.  It also fills the "deals" square on my Dark Fantasy Bingo Card.  It has been sponsored out of the general fund.  This poem belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman.  You can read more about the villanelle form online.

"Some fool has stolen the stars again,"
Befana said as she rapped the door.
"and the moon, to make his love a pin."

Fiorenza looked where they had been
and grouched, as she crossed the chilly floor,
"Some fool has stolen the stars again."

She snatched them right from under his chin,
saying, "Give me back the stars galore,
and the moon!  Go make  your love a pin."

Befana she asked for seeds so thin
against the future when furthermore,
"Some fool has stolen the stars again."

Sunflowers, starflowers, in a bin
Fiorenza started, to restore,
and moonflowers like a lover's pin.

So now it's the garden beds wherein
she goes when Befana does implore,
"Some fool has stolen the stars again,"
"and the moon, to make his love a pin."

* * *

Notes:

Sunflower is a popular wildflower and garden plant.

Moonflower is a relative of morning glory that blooms at night.

Starflower is another name for borage.

Fairy tale cosmology can get very weird.  Often the sun, the moon, and the stars are things that can be lost or stolen.  Then somebody has to go and retrieve them, often involving a lengthy quest.  They may be depicted as lanterns, jewelry, flowers, fruit, or other ordinary objects.  When depicted as flowers or fruit, sometimes they have seeds; or in other cases they just are seeds made of fire.  I combined the motifs so that Fiorenza, an astute problem-solver and gardener, can harvest the seeds and grow spares.

Poking around at the sky-as-garden-of-light idea, and thinking about the many different versions I've read, I don't think that stealing the lights would make them disappear forever.  I think they'd grow back eventually.  But they'd be apparently missing until they did, and that's a nuisance.

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