Who Remembers

Who remembers Léonor de Montaigne,
an unloved only child, merely a daughter?
Her (unloved) mother, women servants, taught her
manners and household matters, to be clean,
how to cook and, one would hope, to garden.
A governess, perhaps. No Latin tutor.
No fencing, equitation. No world tour.
The essay on educating (well-born) men
her father wrote stipulated all these.
And who remembers Jacqueline Pascal,
whose father taught her everything her brother
learned. Church writings only – poetry’s
too worldly. Though she could word a miracle.
Marie, uncloistered, always remembered her

Marie, uncloistered, always remembered her
months in the convent, when to fast, pray,
...