Mata Hari’s Head is Missing

 

Mata Hari’s head is missing

and they’re searching in the streets

looking high and low in Paris

and peeking ‘tween the sheets

 

Could it have slipped out on it’s own

and booked a ticket on a plane?

Or did it don a cheap disguise

And change it’s name again?

 

(Though her origins were Dutch

she was Indonesian in her myth

If you see her, please don’t touch

for Mata Hari has the syph.)

 

Just in case you wonder why

I concern myself with the witch

In a former life, it was I

who shot the sneaking, spying bitch

 

And though I thought it was the end

when she fell defiant, before me dead

Now I’m cursed to roam the land

In search of Mata Hari’s head.

 

According to Wikipedia, “Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle) 7 August 1876-15 October 1917) better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for the Germans during World War I and executed by a firing squad in France.”  She denied being a spy until the end, and died rather bravely—refusing a blindfold and blowing a kiss to her executors. After being shot and sinking to her knees, she was then shot again, this time in the head, by an officer who was present.

Her head was embalmed and given to the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. In 2000, it was discovered that her head was missing and remains unaccounted for to this day.