My Joan of Arc

Just words

                               


     My Joan of Arc

She painted her make-up upon perfect skin. She turned to me and she told me . "I need my war face tonight. I rarely show my real face to anyone. I used to pray for perfect life. Now I pray to keep death away and find reasons to live."

She was my leather and lace. She was my black in heart beauty.  I told her. No perfect life my dear love. All of us had sins and create pain and hell. No perfect soul.  I have begged for mercy in the fire of love and I had ran from true salvation. You cannot repair the deeds of foolishness.

She laughed at my words and she came close to me. Whispered. "I use to pray for someone like you. Someone who would accept my scars and my heavy weight of regret. But, dead hearts and blind eyes cannot know love. You cannot save me. I don't want to be saved."

I kissed her tender lips and I brought her close. I told her. I have been dead for many years my love. My true face have been lost. I'm just a ghost of what I was. You and I. We are just people who almost had it all and now we must find some laughter, dance with the midnight moon and pray to the stars. To shed the skin of old and reborn anew.

She smiled and laughed. She questioned me. "Can we shred our old skin and be born innocence my love? Can we forgive the past deeds and forget the sins done?"

I told her. Sins and bad actions cannot be forgotten. We must move on and try not to repeat the same mistakes. Life is just lessons to make us wiser. Old poet wisdom. Life is tragedy, life is gestures of love and to live without fear. We must expose our true self. Open locked doors. Allow love to be sang into the blood, into the skin and we must eat love and life with a desperate need or we shall die. Tonight sweet lady we shall drink and dance. Forget the yesterday bad dreams.

Pretty woman smiled and she asked me. "Can Joan of Arc know peace? Burned body and heart, can it be rebirth in the flame of Summer hope and foolish Poet wish?"

Two people left the motel room. Hand in hand. Old Poet said a silent prayer. Please God of life and death. Forgive us who have sins. Life is hard and forgiveness is harder."

                           John Castellenas/Coyote

Author's Note

Just words

Reviews

[D]

Words, and not just any words.
I loved it. As usual, there's always a few lines that get my eyes stuck on them...
And this time the sneaky thing masked itself as a seemingly "regular " line

" You cannot repair the deeds of foolishness."

but it's true, and almost perfectly explains the whole beginning of the piece, in a single sentence.
Well penned.

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you Kossuth. I appreciate the comment.

[D]

Always a pleasure my friend :)

[MsJewel]

Absolutely lovely John. I've missed reading you!

Julie

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you dear friend for reading and the comment. I'm glad you are back.

[Pryde Foltz]

In every moment lies the possibility of peace ... the trick is holding onto it. No sin can live in peace:) Lovely write, John:)

[Coyote Poetry]

You are right my friend. Thank you for reading and the comment.

[H.L. Cerveise]

This is a true to life and well written piece. We all come to a relationship with our past, both the good and the bad. I love the line "...Burned body and heart, can it be a rebirth ..." because I know all souls go through countless fires of the heart and our bodies as we go through life. Thanks for sharing this writing.

Well done.

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you for reading and the comment my friend. I appreciate the comment.

[barleygirl]

Altho this is a compelling & interesting story of mutual attraction, it reads like a parable, where the narrator is imparting wisdom about life. I like the "Joan of Arc" connection, as far as being burned at the stake for our sins (which happens in a variety of ways to many of us). I can relate to these lessons very much.

[Coyote Poetry]

Most of us can. Must learn pleasure to know joy and pleasure. Thank you my friend for reading and the comment.

[Irenic]

The piece is masterpiece, my friend. The way you have written how the woman wished for peacefulness and calm in her life desperately and how he the old poet tries to explain why they could not have such life is very beautiful. these lines, especially are worthy to praise:

Sins and bad actions cannot be forgotten. We must move on and try not to repeat the same mistakes. Life is just lessons to make us wiser. Old poet wisdom. Life is tragedy, life is gestures of love and to live without fear. We must expose our true self. Open locked doors. Allow love to be sang into the blood, into the skin and we must eat love and life with a desperate need or we shall die.

it is a very beautiful passage because the words are very effective and message is very beautiful and realistic showing the reality.

and these lines too are very beautiful:
Please God of life and death. Forgive us who have sins. Life is hard and forgiveness is harder."

These are very beautiful lines. You brought light to the reality that how much it is difficult for a person to forgive someone for something but how much it is easy to commit a sin.

very beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. :) Keep on writing! :)

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you dear friend. Your comment is appreciated.

[Irenic]

You are welcome :)

[Lyn Anderson]

This is really beautiful, as always. Told in your distinctively moving romantic style.
A few minor edits -- I think you meant shed, not shred, "can it be reborn", (not rebirth) and a "silent prayer" as opposed to silence prayer. No matter, your simple and captivating style always shines through.

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you for the help and reading. I do appreciate.

[Lyn Anderson]

No problem, my friend. You do know you are one of my favourite writers on here, and a person I believe whose writings have great potential to be commercially successful.

[Lydia Shutter]

Someone who accepts you with your scars, your faults, and your heart is not easy to find. Too many only look at the made up face and neglect to see into the soul. I believe you do see into the heart and soul of all the women you write about, John. Our sins are part of who we are. We all have them. However, our sins do not define us. Our hearts and souls do. Beautifully written prose. Lydi**

[Coyote Poetry]

I agree Lydia. Thank you for reading and the comment.

[Tomás Ó C..]

A photo of a moment in time... we all have regrets in life...

[Coyote Poetry]

We do and we must learn from them.

[Einstein Noodle]

very interesting tale ...there is a great intimacy in knowing ones self and exposing it to another .. intimacy and courage ..your story has a thread of fatalism in it ...that comes from a hard life ... and the two kind of desperate together ... desperate apart ... finding each other for just a moment of shared humanity ... we certainly have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God ... i believe is how the Bible puts it ;)
E.

[Coyote Poetry]

You are right my friend. Thank you for reading and the comment.

[PoeticSorcery]

interesting, it's like it's own little short story, bringing me into a different world.

[Coyote Poetry]

Good to fall into another world. Reading should take us to a different place. Thank you for reading and the comment.

[PoeticSorcery]

indeed, unless it's just a comedy satire poem lol. you're welcome, I'm trying to do more reviews these days.