"Woman's Body"" Poem by Frances Croak Frank

Woman’s Body

Did the woman say,

When she held him for the first time in the dark of a stable,

After the pain and the bleeding and the crying

‘This my body, this is my blood’?

Did the woman say,

When she held him for the last time in the dark rain on a hilltop,

After the pain and the bleeding and the dying,

‘This is my body, this is my blood’?

Well that she said it to him then,

For dry old men,

Brocaded robes belying barrenness,

ordain that she not say it to him now.  

Frances Croak Frank, (Contemporary): Frances was involved in England in the Anglican struggle for the ordination of women. Praying with the Women MysticsMary Malone pg. 17).