PornocracyMichael Morrissey
try conjuring up
this delicate word
on yellow buses
try to find it
tagged in toilets
My dictionary claims
it was a courtesan-esque
influence over the papal court
in the tenth century
What delicious dalliance
did they execute while
romping in reddest velvet?
Theodora serenissima vestaratrix
and mother of Marozia
became Patricia of Rome
both mother and lascivious daughter
jointly denounced by Gibbon
as the Rule of the Harlots
Liutprand of Cremona
dubbed Marozia a shameless whore
who married Guy of Tuscany
arrested John X in the Lateran,
jailed him in the Castel Sant' Angelo
smothered him with a pillow
then seized power and reduced
Leo V1 and Stephen V11 to puppets
raised her bony-arsed son,
a skinny youth, sparse
of beard, to be the pontiff
then married her half brother
– ruling ran in the family.
A nadir of the papacy cooked up
this spicy relish for historians.
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