The Mirror of Plight

This poem is centered on the trial of Joan of Arc; it seeks to deconstruct the trial not as a legal event, but as a collision between elemental purity and earthly rot. By reframing the historical figures—the judges as sightless, burrowing creatures and the King as a shadow weighted by blood-soaked currency—the poem highlights the isolation of a "vision" when it is caught in the machinery of power.

A vision born in the river of death
and a sigh of love beneath its depth

a wave of grace trapped in the red moon
the pillar of lies lurking in the court room

the silent cries of men behind her banner
echoed in the minds of men dressed as badger

the shadow of the king, pockets soaked in her blood
the men behind the walls of Orléans crushed in the mud

forty-two men with no eyes and a poisoned truth
have come to steal the light of a vision in her youth

the wooden cross on her chest, the mirror of light
a promise of love burned for ever in her plight

By Cameron Brio - April 2026