Villanelle for 1976 by Isabel Ashdown

Isabel Ashdown was born in London and grew up on the Sussex coast. Her award-winning debut Glasshopper (Myriad, 2009) was written while studying Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, entering several ‘Best Books’ charts that same year. Her most recent novel Beautiful Liars (Orion, 2018) is a psychological thriller located along the London waterways and Derbyshire’s Peak District. Isabel is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and a Read2Dogs volunteer for the charity Pets as Therapy. She lives in West Sussex with her family, where she walks daily in the hills and woods of the South Downs.

https://isabelashdown.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isabelashdown_writer/

 

 

Villanelle for 1976


 

           

‘The water’s gone – the water’s gone,’ he said.

A drought, they called it. Rainfall deficit.

That August was the driest one, we read.

 

Our Hottest Year on Record, headlines led.

The sun boiled up the pavement, made it spit.

‘The water’s gone – the water’s gone,’ he said.

 

We planned a trip to feed the ducks stale bread –

My brother told me, ‘take the newting kit!’

That August was the driest one, we read.

 

We poured into the garden, to the shed –

The bleaching wood was splintered where it split.

‘The water’s gone – the water’s gone,’ he said.

 

Across the scorching fields my sibling led –

The soft horizon shimmering, sunlit.

That August was the driest one, we read.

 

The pond was empty, no ducks to be fed;

Our shadow frowned into the barren pit.

‘The water’s gone – the water’s gone,’ he said.

That August was the driest one, we read.

 

 

Isabel Ashdown

 

stories

poems