The Maid of New Orleans

The Maid of New Orleans A teenage cow girl who couldn’t write Was told by God to front the fight the hundred Year War against the French And cut her hair in trendy wedge Six centuries later it became the rage She donned male clothes to further enrage Raising a flag along with the others To battle by a regiment of brothers Without a weapon, she could not kill But controlled her men with fiery will She took an arrow to her shoulder Her actions by now becoming bolder To liberate the French from English reign And continue with her tough campaign In Orleans with some success But Paris was a failed attempt When a crossbow bolt hit her thigh She maintained her strength and did not die The English caught her in old Rouen And gleefully put her in their prison With seventy charges, then down to twelve For hearing voices, wearing masculine clothes To face a life long incarceration She assumed male garb in desperation To avoid rape and intimidation The Godly voices, she confessed Tied to a stake, she acquiesced With celestial eyes but consumed by flames Thus canonized to saintly fame T 2 600 years ago 3 Schizophrenic? Voices in the head, seizures. 4 Led French army to some victories in the Hundred Years War (Charles V11) against the English 5 Seen as a mascot in battle she brandished a flag instead of a weapon 6 Took an arrow in her shoulder during the New Orleans campaign and a crossbow bolt in the thigh during a failed attempt to liberate Paris 7 Volatile temper. She kept the troops in check. Ridiculed by her male counterparts and taunted about her French dialect, she always quipped back in humiliating tone 8 Fell into English hands in 1430 in Rouen (English Stronghold) and tried by an ecclesiastical court. 70 charges were made against her. Whittled down to 12. Wearing of male clothes and hearing God’s voice when she was threatened by possible rape and intimidation while in prison 9 Burned at the stake in 1431 10 Emulated by imposters even after death 11 Pioneered the popularity of the bob hairstyle. She was told by voices to cut her hair in manly style.