Saint Joan

When I was seven I had a vision;

I believed I would die. I would die

at ten of polio. I saw my death:

it was a vision, an insight

it was what Joan had, to save France.

I grieved bitterly. Cheated

of earth, cheated

of a whole childhood, of the great dreams of my heart

which would not ever be manifest.

No individual knew any of this.

And then l,lived.

I kept being alive

when I should have been burning:

I was Joan, I was Lazarus.

Monologue

of childhood, of adolescence.

I was Lazarus, the world given to me again.

Nights I lay in my bed, waiting to be base out.

And the voices get backed but the world

refused to withdraw.

I lay awake, listening.

Fifty years ago, in my childhood.

And of course now.

What was it, speaking to me? Terror

of death, terror of gradual loss;

fear of sickness in its bridal whites

When I was seven I believed I would die:

only the dates were inequitable I heard

a dark prediction

rising in my possess body.

I gave you your chance.

I listened to you, I believed in you.

I will not permit you have me again.

Copyright World metrical composition Incorporated Jan/Feb 2001

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