More Lines 2K17: 21

Burning Down the House

Down an abbey hall I walk
the wrong way past the stained
glass life of Joan of Arc. In the story
now, an old man saves a pop star
from a terrible fire. He gives her
a man's shirt and tells her
she should go back to her family.
I will, she replies, after one
last show on my tour. The old
man flares. Then you will walk
through a warscape to get there.
The star is unswayed. I must.
A cavalry soldier, secretly a fan,
gives her his sword. True
to everyone's word, she fights
cross-country, improbable
as fame. Just as the curtain rises
she staggers into the spotlight, barely
recognized until she lifts
her voice. A smash as always.
The pop star even pulls the prince--hiding
in the crowd--onstage for a duet.
He begs her not to retire, to lead
the new style she's ignited. The next
morning she rides back to her father's
farm. They are glad to see her, beloved,
but in their faces also a parting
sadness--perhaps because the halo
still hovers around her boyish head.

song prompt by Bob D