LLANO VILLANELLE

Don’t go out hunting with the wrong floodlight.
Whitetails can see you coming miles away.
Turn out your floodlight if it isn’t right

and buy yourself a new one. Hasse’s might
have it but they’ll make you overpay.
Don’t go out hunting with the wrong floodlight.

You’ll never bag a buck using that light.
I done told you it’s shit. What did I say?
Turn out your floodlight if it isn’t right

should be a podunk commandment. Light
with ten million candle-strength is about right.
No, I don’t have a cigarette. I can’t give you a light.

Don’t go out hunting with the wrong floodlight.
A broke beam isn’t gonna’ make it look like day.
Turn out your floodlight if it isn’t right—

and stop interrupting me, man. This light’s
a Wal-Mart piece of shit. What did I say?
Don’t go out hunting with the wrong floodlight.
Spotlighting bucks requires startling them: more light.

-first appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review