Jehanne
There's an angel in the fire
feathers burning, acrid, ashy black.
Where is the bird-winged host,
her cloudy birth
brothers
the holy triune fatherspiritson
to pull her out?
She keeps her shield
and sword bright
gold light, her hose fastened tight
in the cell where they say
the war
is over, the king she crowned gone
far away as god.
The angel in the fire weeps, she reasons,
she argues like a cardinal, while
her dark luminous eyes follow me
as I open windows to let out the stink.
The cross on her standard
won't keep away the crows
but there's no feather anywhere
of her brother
Michael, his deaf-making voice
of cathedral bells, his wings for a tabard
over her soldier's casing.
The horns of the devil
hold up the sky,
pierce the dropping night.
Her sword ignites
like a willow leaf.
Her breastplate with
the hundred dents above
the heart
is all that cumbers her.
The salt stained straps cut into
flesh that was the white lily of Lorraine,
yet it will be the last
she lets go for her dress of flame.
No sign appears, not even rain;
instead she burns
and burns
lost, half-smiling, staring at me
as if there were something I could do.
~December 2013, January 2014
Fireblossom Friday: Clothes Make The Woman
The inimitable Fireblossom has asked us to write about an article of clothing. To wit:"What I want you to do is to write a
poem in which clothes play a significant part...The
poem must have some item of clothing as an important component, not just
something mentioned in passing." I have also written to her last challenge here, Calling All Angels, which I missed at the time, which asked for a poem about angels.
Process notes: Joan of Arc, (or Jehanne, as she referred to herself) lead a succesful campaign against the English during the Hundred Years War, till she was captured and put on trail by them for heresy. Jehanne cut her hair short and wore the armor and clothing of a male knight of her time,both as symbol and protection against rape. The most prominent "legal" pretext used by the Inquisition to execute her was based on an Old Testament text condemning women who dress in any article of male clothing to death. She was burned at the stake on May 30th, 1431. Jehanne was later exonerated, and canonized as St Joan in 1920
Images: Joan of Arc, by Odillon Redon
St Joan, by John William Waterhouse
Both paintings public domain, via wikipaintings.org