Dustin Brookshire and Beth Gylys

A contoured villanelle* using “Burned” by Alicia Stallings 

Love a damaged man, you’re gonna get burned.
Darling, you’ll end up useless as charred toast. 
I went for the broken ones too until I learned 
 
dating is like customer service, listen to Unchurned
and watch for landmines, never trust a post  
on Facebook from a damaged man. You’ll get burned, 
 
but first he’ll suck you like a straw. Spurned,
you’ll be spat on the sidewalk. Respect is furthermost 
from what a broken man will offer. I’ve learned 
 
to teach men by what I accept.  I’ve earned  
my “hell no” to shit—to date grownups that don’t boast,
to strike a match, hold it close without getting burned, 
 
to feel you like a kiss that closes what yearned, 
as if I’m twirling in a field or walking the coast
and nothing is broken in any way. I’ve learned
 
to put myself first.  I won’t be a package returned,
or say goodbye and sense you still with me, a ghost.
The power of exorcism is one thing I’ve learned. 
That. And how to avoid getting burned.

*A contoured villanelle takes the end words from each line of an existing villanelle, matching end words in the same order to construct a new villanelle. 

Dustin Brookshire’s (he/him) fourth & latest chapbook is Repeat As Needed (Harbor Editions, 2025). He is a co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023) and editor of When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton (Harbor Editions, 2024). More at dustinbrookshire.com.

Beth Gylys (she/her) is the Principal Investigator of Beyond Bars, a Mellon Foundation sponsored journal for and by incarcerated writers and artists, and an award-winning poet and Distinguished Professor at Georgia State University. Recent publications include After My Father, a chapbook of odes (Dancing Girl Press, 2024) and Body Braille (Iris Books, 2021). More at linktr.ee/bethgylys.