Carol Ann Duffy — Pope Joan

After I learned to transubstantiate  unleavened bread into the sacred host and swung the burning frankincense till blue -green snakes of smoke coiled round the hem of my robe and swayed through those fervent crowds high up in a papal chair  blessing and blessing the air nearer to heaven than cardinals, archbishops, bishops, preists being Vicar of Rome  having made the Vatican my home like the best of men  in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti amen  but twice as virtuous as them I came to believe that I did not believe a word so I tell you now daughters or brides of the Lord that the closest I felt  to the power of God was the sense of a hand lifting me, flinging me down lifting me, flinging me down as my baby pushed out from between my legs where I lay in the road in my miracle not a man or a pope at all