Early morning song, 
Stinging bitterness.
Early morning smog 
From distant pyres.
Charred and ruined 
Among the ashes:
A lonely sword, 
Lonely sword, broken.
Remaining is the worst part,
Going on knowing 
What was wrong.
Fanning up the flames 
And stoking up the fires
And making a martyr
For all your pains.

---

Joan of Arc, French heroine and saint, was born on this day in 1412.

Theodore Roosevelt, American politician, statesman and conservationist, died today in 1919.