A Date for Notoriety
Five hundred and thirty years of notoriety
All depicted on this date - some with piety
At least ... in the case of Joan and Henry
Who both believed in a certain supremacy
The Maid of Orleans says she had visions
And refused to recant ... assuring division
Although she had the opportunity to live
Other factors outweighed that bridge ...
Henry run afoul of the papacy's dictates
And so, created his own church and state
All so he could divorce his first ever queen
In order to marry Anne Boleyn ... it seems
Only to have her executed a few years later ...
For alleged incest, and being an adulterator
(An incident repeated then in fifteen forty-two ...
After similar charges against his fifth wife, too)
And then in the next century would come along
Captain William Kidd, who initially was quite strong
At capturing enemy vessels on the high seas ...
Authorized by the British ... and theirs to please
But he would become independent, and turn his back
Stealing the treasures of the many ships he high-jacked
And so - on this very date in seventeen hundred one
Captain William Kidd - notorious pirate ... was hung
An honor denied to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
For the two of them were killed, and not with arrows
Shot to death on this very day in nineteen thirty-four
To end their bank robberies and killings forever-more
And then - some twenty years later - after the war
The first of two notorious Nazis would come to fore
As Heinrich Himmler would kill himself in prison ...
Before anyone could make it their own mission ...
Something the Israelis did in the case of the other
Tracking Adolf Eichmann to Argentina to discover
... His whereabouts and thence to capture the man
On this date, it was accomplished, ending his lam
A half-dozen events over five hundred thirty years
Some we look at aghast, and one with a few tears
All spelling the end for the notorious listed here
On this very date ... a commonality without cheer
- Tristram
© Christopher W. Thomas
2:15pm Sunday, May 23rd, 1999