Issue 96, Poem
Instruments


It was the Renaissance,
then the Age of Reason.
Papal names included Innocent, gentle Leo,
though some were more urbane.
There were more female than male witches
because women were more lightheaded and sensual
than men, concluded men
like Dominican Inquisitor Jakob Sprenger in 1487.
Besides, he added, women had always been
favourite of Satan.
The Archbishop of Trier had 120 burned at Pfalz
for making the cold weather
last devilishly long in 1596.
And God was often graciously pleased to reveal the truth,
If not at first, at any rate at the last, thumbscrew.
Hoping to be pardoned, suspects accused each other
(our ears burn when others speak of us).
Even Bacon stated that the secrets of nature
could be teased and tortured out of her.
By God, if wommen hadde writen stories,
They wolde han writen of men moor wickednesse
Than al the mark of Adam may redresse.
It was the Renaissance,
then the Age of Reason.

Brian Pastoor

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