Classic Poem

Suppose Marie Antoinette had come to Wiscasset,
Escaped from Paris, escaped from violence, escaped from fear,
Would she have lived, soberly and quietly,
Talking to the women in the square white houses here?

Where they saw gray water, she would have seen steel flashing,
Where they saw autumn leaves, blood she would have seen,
The shivering white birches would have seemed like frightened ladies
Where the Wiscasset eyes found only moving green.

And when she saw the women go out into the barnyard
Then she would have felt her tired heart fail
Remembering the Trianon and a dress of flowered satin
And herself going milking with a silver milking pail.