28 February 2016

#28 - l'ange de l'assassinat

...for Charlotte Corday...

Oh Charlotte, where do all these sorrows start?
Within an abbey library’s leisured life?
Or on the bloody streets of France the strife
and fratricide that tear a nation’s heart?
Perhaps the genesis of Bonaparte
lies at the point the angel wields her knife
the justice of the revolution’s wife
that leads to terror in a tumbrel cart.

You killed one man to save ten thousand more,
but those ten thousand damn you with their roar:
they see you as some avatar of sin,
and all you see is Marat's devil grin.
The curtain falls ‒ it's time to walk away ‒
the blade cuts deep as bright days fade to grey.

RJT

The Death of Marat - Jacques-Louis David

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