Eiffel Tower

Painting by Karen Tarlton

iron wrought from rebellion
a pylon to gracefully pierce
the blue skin of the sky
an inaugural century carried
by elegant lattice and truss
to the heights of new history
footings embedded in blood
of the montagnard terror
that laid to their graves the
last members of ancien régime
disappeared by the guillotine
dead to all memory hidden
forever and future beneath
its tall prominent shadow

this tower proud symbol of
conflict resolved stands in
green martial fields where the
legions of Caesar rehearsed
subjugation of solipsist cities
where fascism fell of its fallacy
ancient and terribly modern
this tower as icon stands firm
alongside Marianne and the
tricolor filling republican hearts
of all Frenchmen embraced by
the spirit of violent uprise
and deadly reprisal the ethics
attending compelled revolution

liberté, égalité, fraternité,
ou la mort