Robespierre's Last Words
after T.S. Eliot's "What the Thunder Said"
by Susanna

After the lamp-posts' light on his pale face
After her childish tears in the garden
After the stillness in my chamber
The accusing and the blaming
The hall, the palace, the revolution
Of my people throughout this tortured land
He who brought me hope is dead
I who brought them hope am dying
With his death burned into my weeping eyes

Here is no peace but only pain
Pain and no understanding and the steps to climb
The steps leading up to death's instrument
Which is already shining with his blood
If he were there waiting I would rush to die
But amongst this crowd one cannot be sure of anything
Fire is icy and he is already dead
If he were only there waiting
Animated fiery ice in the form of mere man
Here I can neither know nor believe nor hope
There is peace beyond the guillotine
But endless taunting voices without him
There is not even death beyond the guillotine
But my name as disgrace and failure
In books of deathless history