Dear Saint Joan

Dear Saint Joan

I’ve been meaning to write you for years
after reading Shaw’s play
and seeing Cindy Sheehan camped
on the border of our leader’s land
in Texas to protest our wars.
From your lofty view, it cannot
matter that I am a writer
who also taught a generation
about women like you,
but now in retirement, I have more
pressing questions than answers.

Are you still quite sure that God
instructed you to fight for France?
Was any Christian nation really
better than any other? Didn’t
they all fervently push the cross
east, cloaking the need to conquer
as the will to save? What drove
you to defend the French King?

After so many centuries of war,
what do you think of Cindy’s model?
Refuse to be lured into violence.
Go to the place of power and ask
for what you think is right. Keep
asking. Stay outside the gate
in public view. Call on others
to join you. Above all
think of the children. If we betray
them, who will tend the world?

You were scarcely more than a child
yourself when you put on the armor
we have all admired so long.
Do you never wish that someone
in the Dauphin’s court had said
think of the children?

Estella Lauter