Boadicea

Hands tied at her wrist and bloodied
she is paraded through the square

And her red tawny hair still burns a crimson fury

As she locks eyes with us

This savage

Still ferocious and battle weary
her resolve is not tainted

Like a hideous statues she peers
at us defiant

And penetrates our civility
with green eyes

A civility that flogged her once,
and raped her daughters and broke that spirit.

Oh and how Camulodunum
fell

and the Iceni did rise
Led by this

Lioness

And purple blood
steamed and seemed
to burn as it
it exchanged virtues with steel and this

Albion air

But still she is a woman and her tunic rides over her skin
and shapely breasts and down powerful hips to her ankles

Where a gold bracelet sits indicating her blood right

Such delicacy and danger together meet
And she becomes all the more alluring
For her strength equals that of any man
And her beauty though slightly hidden
behind this ferocious
mask

Is still
and obvious