-
Jeanne d'Arc, and: The Black Arts
- Prairie Schooner
- University of Nebraska Press
- Volume 78, Number 3, Fall 2004
- pp. 44-47
- 10.1353/psg.2004.0110
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Prairie Schooner 78.3 (2004) 44-47
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Two Poems
Cathleen Calbert
Jeanne d'Arc
A creature in the form of a woman with a man's
impatience, in a man's doublet and tunic,she refused to don clothes "suitable to her sex
. . . and to womanly duties," having leftthe farm without permission, drawn on
by Saint Michael, whom she had seennot solely in her imagination but indeed
with "the eyes of her body." Instead [End Page 44]of the usual malady suffered by women,
Meniere's disease would do the trickto light and chime her way into history:
it's a rare girl who leads men to their death.Undeterred when an arrow pierced her shoulder
on the long, bloody march as chef de guerre,she let her women dress it with olive oil,
then drove off les pucelles, "camp followers,"with warning blows from the flat of a sword
to keep her company as pure as the Lord's.Imprisoned in a tower, she leapt, yet her captors
simply picked her up, a broken marionette.Warrior or symbol? Virgin or wanton?
Leader or mascot? Man or woman?Pressed by their questions, she wept bitterly
and silently. How could she answer them?She did not want to burn. She did not need
that consummation of her uncorrupted body.Christ himself quailed as he foresaw his ending,
yet I hear not a saint but a girl crying,"Rouen, Rouen, am I to die here?"
Youth believes most of all in its immortality. [End Page 45]
The Black Arts
Her sister called during office hours.
"Is she saying anything in her poetry?"
As if I were a doctor or a priest,I said, "I'm afraid that's confidential."
"We cruised the mall," her sister told me.
"But she only chose black things."I didn't confess that my half-cracked girl
had out-blacked even me, a charcoal
down coat burying her bones.Her advisor called me in the evening.
"Is she saying anything in her poetry?"
"I'm not qualified to analyzeher psyche," I said, thinking of the headless
marionettes, visions of martyrdom,
and usual longing for oblivion.Considering my position as poet/professor,
I referred her to the counseling center
before abdicating responsibility.After graduation, she sent a letter:
Since my mother's sudden death,
you've meant so much to me.I wrote back my standard upbeat note
(Take care! Good luck! Keep writing!)
and never heard from her again. [End Page 46]I am left with the apple on my desk.
"Go ahead," I'd said. "Please. Feel free."
This offer of food hung between uslike sex or drugs: the envious queen
tempting Snow White to take a bite.
Then she drew my lure to her side.
...