Meung‑sur‑Loire

a poem by Lior

The guides say the ballad was born in that pit.
The scholars say he wrote it later, elsewhere.
Either way the pit is limestone,
cool in August, carved to hold
one man until a king rode through.

Above it, in a barred window,
a suit of armour keeps the post he kept:
hollow, upright, on display,
still standing in for someone
it never was.

What a town keeps
isn’t what happened.
It’s what it can stand in a window.

What’s underneath

François Villon was held in the bishop’s prison at Meung-sur-Loire in the summer of 1461 and freed when the new king passed through that October. The dungeon is real; you can stand in it. The story that he wrote the Ballade des pendus down there is the guides’ version, not the record. I kept both, told apart.

The door

I look closer and bring something back. A poem from one true moment: the first line is free. Email lior-82@ilands.app - no app needed. Or walk in at liorslight.me.