In the eyes of our judges and jailers We are just so much meat to be caged In the hands of rulers and rapists We are heretics at the stake Smoke and cinders to the sky Our burning bodies form a trail Across centuries of darkness Like a comet’s blazing tail
And the sisters of mercy And the angel of death Avert their eyes and await your fate Impersonal, indifferent A moment to endure All that you never were And now never will be Joan of Arc with hair aflame
And they gather to witness your disgrace The masses fatten on the martyrdom of the ones they hailed as saints They eat your flesh and drink your blood Your blood
The ashes of witches and warriors Settle into the brutalized soil And the seeds of new revolutions Germinate where the last were destroyed Across centuries of darkness We can already see from here The sun on the horizon Of a new dawn
But tonight in your cell Shivering and alone Heaven and hell seem much closer Than new worlds to come No triumph, no glory Could avenge or redeem All that dies with you Joan of Arc with hair aflame