Marie Curie

By Francis J. Kelly

In Poland, she, a teacher’s child of six,
Did see the Russian eagle everywhere;
And from this dreaded sight, she learned to fix
Her heart upon the smashing of the bear.

Deceived was she by Emile Zola’s tripe.
His lies ‘gainst Lourdes--pure poison to her mind;
For thus enraged by anti-cleric hype,
She lost the love she should show to her kind.

Marie Curie, apostate, was in France,
Destroyed by freezing fire from radium.
Debauched by lust in hopeless lost romance
With married colleague, Pierre Langevin.

To her the dreaded pain of it was this:
She, to Pierre, had thought it right to write
Advice on how they two would find their bliss
If he with his one wife would force a fight.

These plans Pierre’s poor spouse in shock did find
And held them ‘gainst her man and his new lust.
In public she exposed these cuts unkind
To prove them mean and cruel and so unjust.

This scandal pierced the pride of proud Marie
As through the press and courts was dragged her name;
It gave the pious French a true story
To warn their girls and boys against such shame.

In later years Marie did come to die;
And cold, unshriven, proud she passed away;
And with her first Pierre* she chose to lie
With no pure prayer or priest to light the day.

But let Our Lord, her gentle, just judge, be;
And let’s  not haste in hell to damn her soul.
His Heart, a cauldron, burns with charity
And from His merits would salvation dole.

As Christ, in days when He did walk on earth,
Forgave the woman’s dark adultery
And kindly said, so all could see her worth,
“The first to cast a stone should sinless be.”

So let us pray Marie will be enrolled
In that great state where all is joy and light,
Where ne’re the bell of fearful death is tolled
But all enjoy God’s love in sheer delight.

For sure, Marie was baptized as a child.
Her mother, Bronislawa, saw to that.
And still despite a life so fierce and wild,
Her pious mother’s  prayers could pay her debt.

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