Joanna Garrido

Daughter of Wessex

Heroine extraordinaire

I loved you then 

and love you still

Hardy’s daughter of Wessex

 

Pure, innocence shone

Mistreated by men

Your fresh faced beauty

Attracted

 

Forced upon

Mother of misery

Buried child

Without a name

 

Angel your saviour

So good a man as he

Your one true love

Married you in bliss

 

So good a man as he

Abandoned you

On your wedding night

Ears closed to your truth

 

You worked the land

A survivor

Harsh winter toil

Chilled to the bone

 

He claimed you 

He who forced you

And in your abandonment

A weak moment of chill

 

Good Angel reconsidered

Years away, his health poor

Returned to find you

Too late

 

In cold hatred 

he who forced you 

paid 

as you snapped

 

I can see you now

Cold as Winter’s smile

On the slabs of Stonehenge

As they came for you

 

My favourite 

doomed 

heroine

Tess 

 

4/2/19 JG