8. Entry from Ricard Kelly

A Valentine’s poetry competition for lovers of history

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A Valentine Unsent

Paris, Pluviôse, Year II

Citizeness, they’d have me say. But no -

Madame, I watched you ride the tumbrel’s way,

Hair shorn close, hands bound tight, and though

I cheered with all the rest that October day,

I confess I did not expect the quiet.

L’Autrichienne, we spat it like a curse

The she-wolf glutting on the people’s diet,

Bleeding poor France to fill the royal purse.

And yet you stepped down with such clumsy grace

Trod upon the executioner’s boot.

He grumbled; you apologised. Your face

Held neither rage nor plea. Serene, and mute.

I had imagined satisfaction, Madame.

Fifteen years’ hunger, of watching my mother

Weep over bread she could not buy. Your name

Was all our grievance. Yet somehow or other,

Standing in that crowd, I thought instead

Of how your son was taken, how you wept,

Of how they say you woke each day with dread

And for a moment, something in me stepped

Outside the pure arithmetic of justice.

You were foolish, yes. You never understood

The world beyond your gilt and powdered bliss.

But I wonder now if any of us could

Have learned, had we been raised in such a cage,

To see beyond the mirrors and the roses?

I do not write to pardon; history’s page

Is inked already, and the chapter closes.

But it is February, and the wine is thin,

And I find myself remembering your face

Not the tyrant, but the tired woman within,

Who apologised for stepping out of place.

I hated what you were. I’ll not unsay it.

But you died with better manners than we showed.

If that is not a kind of grace, I’ll weigh it

Against the debt we told you that you owed.

Rest, Madame. The Revolution sends

Too late, and unsigned

This strange Valentine that half-offends

And half-admires. I remain,

A citizen, conflicted but resigned.

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We were delighted to receive so many entries to this competition. We asked for a Valentine’s Day Poem with rhyming couplets written for any figure from history.

Please CLICK HERE to read all the poems and then CLICK HERE to vote.

The winner will be announced on St Valentine’s Day and will received a framed copy of their poem.

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