Poetic Form 90: Rondeau

 Snow-blind

Knuckles white, he is driving south on snow

covered roads he hopes brings him home. Light low

causes him to be snow-blind. Center line

lost, the shoulder fades into fields. The signs

covered in ice as the north wind still blows.

Knowing traveling is risky, he slows

the wheels as headlights appear. “Don’t let go,”

he whispers. A truck’s light fills the skyline,

knuckles white. 

The rush like spirits burning. His elbows

bent to pour and drink for the afterglow.

The truck’s trailer, so white, makes him snow-blind.

The sound of rumbling, wheels find the decline,

and up is now down, shot glass overflowed,

knuckles white.

Poetic Form #90: Rondeau

The rondeau form is composed of 15 lines in three stanzas with the 

first word or phrase from the first line as the refrain (R). All the lines 

are 8 or 10 syllables, except the refrain. The rhyme scheme is two 

rhymes throughout (A and B). The poem would look like this: 

A (R)

A

B

B

A

A

A

B

R

A

A

B

B

A

R