The Nation Says Goodbye to Its Beloved Poet

It was 11 a.m. on Friday, February 28, 2025, when Frankétienne’s casket, draped in the national bicolor and carried by a platoon of nine police officers, reached the steps of Saint-Pierre Church. Standing solemnly beside it, her expression grave yet composed, Marie André Étienne, the widow of the deceased, received the honors of the National Palace Fanfare under the gaze of hundreds gathered in Place Saint-Pierre, across from the church.

There are no such things as beautiful funerals. Yet, Frankétienne—civilly known as Jean Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent—was laid to rest with a ceremony befitting his stature in the Republic.

Lying in his casket, dressed in a white shirt and an ochre suit, he looked like a sleeping child. A child with an impressive white beard.

For this national funeral, tributes celebrating Frankétienne’s life were in abundance. Absent from the c

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