Villanelle of the Onion

The onion's just the way I've always been:
Cracked crumpled armadillo-flesh outside
the countless husks of bottle-glass green skin,

outside a hidden heart I can't begin
to sculpt a better metaphor to hide;
The onion's just. The way I've always been,

my keeping reeking layers deep within
revealed the rest. Who wouldn't weep with pride?
The countless husks of bottle-glass green skin

are bent with pent-up pungent tears again,
from days of smiling dryly while I lied.
The onion's just that way. I've always been

ashamed of that, inside--and always in-
sincere about it to myself. I tried
to count the husks of bottle-glass green skin,

and failed. I never let my friends get in,
for fear they'd flee and finally decide:
"The onion's in the way." I've always been
these countless husks of bottle-glass green skin.


--Jurph