“Let them eat cake” by Marissa McCarty

“Let them eat cake”
propaganda spread across time.
It’s always easier
to demonize a beautiful woman
who enjoys beautiful things.

Born in a gilded cage,
married to a would be boy king,
who, unlike her,
was crowned the sun
of their little universe
convinced that world rose and set
on his every whim.
Even when his empire was already crumbling.

But, at fifteen, an iridescent pearl
shimmering in a gold plated world.
How could anyone expect a girl who had been
bred to be so beautifully vapid,
fed the lie that her sole purpose was to be the vessel
for the next generation for a dying dynasty.

Promised that once she provided
an heir and a spare
that her life would glimmer forever
like a diamond set on the crown she bore.

Only for it to fall into the basket
at 37
kneeling before the alter
of a well-used
guillotine.