Unnamed

This island was mine;
I lived alone with everything upon it,
unnamed but known to me.

Twanging music accompanied the lullaby
of voices on the wind and waves
when this island was mine.

Now I collect sticks for firewood
and share the bounty of my isle,
unnamed but known to me,

with no hope of unconditional love,
a gentle touch, a mate and progeny.
I wish this island was still mine.

But the cycle of the moon is rent apart
together with my hungry heart.
Unnamed, I knew that I was me.

I took comfort from the lullaby of twanging music
when I lived alone with everything upon this island.
Unnamed, I was still me.
Why did you take everything that was mine?

Kim M. Russell, 23^rd April 2026

It’s not only 23^rd April, but also Shakespeare’s assumed birthday and the anniversary of his death. At NaPoWriMo, the optional prompt takes its inspiration from Kiki Petrosino’s loose villanelle, ‘Nursery’. Our challenge is to write a villanelle and have the poem end on a question. I love Shakespeare and sonnets, so I took an old sonnet based on The Tempest, which I wrote back in April 2020, and reworked it as a loose villanelle.