The universe is brown. And amid its ghostly pillars, Jeanne d’Arc looks down into stars, their embers emerging from dust they borrow. It must be cold there. A balm for the fire’s touch. Her funeral wreaths have gone sere, though leaves retain the muted green of tinted photographs. One death but many plinths; one plinth but many deaths. Five centuries past her prime of nineteen years, Joseph Cornell would have boxed her with this backing, along with small birds. The light there, an opening in a forest. A flutter that must be imagined. “Come in, come in,” all the voices say.

* Jeanne d’Arc (1839-40) Furnishing Fabric (cotton, plain weave;
engraved roller and block printed; quilted) by French princess
and artist Marie Christine d’Orléans (1813-1839)

Image downloaded from the Art Institute of Chicago, and
appears here under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

[Princess Marie also sculpted a figure of Joan of Arc Praying which
was cast in bronze after the artist’s death at age 25 from tuberculosis.]

Bio: Daryl Scroggins