Pope Joan and the Cat
by Samantha Henderson
 

I do not like cats.
 

Perhaps that was my ruin, feline

Lucifer in her pique, taking me down.

Raising high the chalice at Mass, I saw

a slinky-brown creature slip, like melted butter,

between the feet of the faithful, smile at me, mocking.
 

Satan's pet her own self, claiming its unnatural own.

If the Pope is a woman, then the Devil is a woman,

then God is a woman: as below,

so above – it cannot stand;

the angels turn away,

scandalized.
 

I don't like cats.
 

Samantha Henderson lives in Southern California with various humans and fauna. Her poetry has been published in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Lone Star Stories, Goblin Fruit, Star*Line and Ideomancer.