Poem: Apology

I had forgotten how difficult it is to write a villanelle. The villanelle is made up of five tercets and a quatrain. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in the successive stanzas and form a couplet at the close. There are only two rhyming sounds in the entire poem. My favorite villanelle by far is Elizabeth Bishop's One Art, which takes some license with the form but does it masterfully.

This poem is a brief attempt at the form. It's very rough and I'm not sure it makes complete sense, but here it is.
-

Apology

Picking you out was more art than theft;
though many wear rings, I knew
you'd leave, and money would be all you had left.

No love, no children, no future, bereft,
so I convinced you I could see all your dreams through;
winning you over was more art than theft.

Talked myself up, talked him down, deft
in insinuations, until even you would rue
that marriage; regret was all you had left.

A goodbye to him, then you leapt
when I asked for your hand, said I do.
Making you love was more art than theft.

I never stole anything, it was you who left
with half his fortune on our wedding debut,
a broken broke man was all you left.

Now, I apologize for leaving you bereft
but I never loved you true.
Leaving you now is more art than theft,
and this poem is all you have left.