that man
he was a woman, with
cropped hair and cobwebbed
words
that illiterate woman
she fought a court to
remain single
she in drag brought men to
war horse to water they
drank they drank deep
that girl
won a war dressed in
white that peasant
commanded a dauphin
and he obeyed
like a dog that virgin
at nineteen she became ash
before her own funeral
that life
that swift.
Lara Katz is 16; she lives in Weston, Connecticut