Scarlet Fist

By Ledya

Edited by Molly Lidgerwood

Image Credit: J. J. Weerts L’assassinio di Marat.

A poem about Charlotte Corday.

(scarlet fist,

scarlet tongue)

you kill one man, make yourself

a sacrificial lamb

for an ungrateful nation

(serene sabre,

serene execution)

doomed by a couped Versailles,

a by-product of a

rotting revolution which

dispenses your corpse

(sea of dead skin,

sea off dirty Seine)

by the grave of disgraced nobility,

the churchyard of a denounced religion

oh you, with your bonnet,

your indignant mouth,

forever the loyal daughter

to a faithless mother