Just Joan
I look out from the stake
to where my judges are seated;
those proud men know nothing of me.
In Christ I am never defeated
though I will die here today,
condemned for my faith and my courage.
Let me look only at the cross.
The beautiful city of Rouen,
in the curve of the River Seine,
will witness the crime
that will live long past my time.
The bodies of a thousand men
decorate your majestic walls,
you are the bride of terror, torn apart,
a city without a heart.
I have heard the voices of angels,
the commands of God I obey;
though men think they have laid hell around me,
I will rise in the smoke up to heaven
just my shell in the ashes will stay.
And now, below me a scene that horrifies,
people screaming ridicule, irreverent eyes,
cruelty calloused, stare without shame.
My spirit hovers
a conscience pure, unstained,
I am neither a heretic or insane.
Copyright, September 9, 2015
Faye Lanham Gibson
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