The History of Womanhood is Pain - It Lives in Us

 

Paul Delaroche, “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”, 1833

The History of Womanhood is Pain

It Lives in Us 

An Ekphrastic Poem
for all the Janes out there 

by Delphie Levy Jones 

I have laid and cried for you, Lady Jane

as I stared at the intricate oil which crafts your skin

and I wonder if you cried for Cleopatra,

or the Holy Mary

or Joan

For we are all one in the same,

fallen women, defiled, betrayed

the history of womanhood is pain

it lives in us

Within your canvas, I grieve for you

strokes of paint written in your blood, your tears

cry the greatest sorrow transcending through the frame

that we are infinitely bonded as pawns

in a man’s game

Blinded by a ribbon, a veil married to your eyes

to disguise a sin much greater than yours

England’s execution of a child

an axe’s pinch makes a fine bride for the reaper

Lain on straw and pillowed floor, your sprawl

to grasp the block, to try to do it right, but

bent on bloody knees, a fragile prayer upon your lips

a testament to the feminine urge 

that craves tenderness, starved to be understood

For you are not so different Lady Jane,

from your sister, Eve

who fell for the serpent and its tongue,

deceived beside Persephone, the temptation to taste the sweet fruit

of historical myth and artistic story

which blames women. Not this,

this art entraps the divine beauty of human feeling,

the innocence of your life

cut short