Crossland (Villanelle)

A poor man with no name, on a horse, with no fame
set out to cross the land.
His father did the same, to be what he became.

The keeper of the key, the keeper of the flame
set out to take a stand.
A poor man with no name, on a horse, with no fame.

All his fathers were the same as they staked their claim,
like slaves they wore a brand.
His father did the same, to be what he became.

Sometimes he is so wild, other times he is tame.
Some came to understand
A poor man with no name, on a horse, with no fame

So now he can proclaim, with little or no shame,
a line drawn in the sand.
His father did the same, to be what he became.

All hardships overcame.
Nothing by God unplanned.
A poor man with no name, on a horse, with no fame.
His father did the same, to be what he became.

*Villanelle

a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.