saint joan

i fall into the couch

coming home

from work

and flick on the tube.

it's a 1928 silent movie

about joan of arc.

a silent film, with

music and what sounds

like opera singing.

the close ups

are what make it work.

the tears,

the faces

in black and white,

etched onto the screen

as if by a charcoal

pencil.

it's a violent film

without special effects.

one of betrayal 

and deception. lies.

even the clergy have 

something up their long

sleeves.

and then she dies,

a martyr until the end,

going up in flames at

the age of nineteen.