They take off their clothes
and smear honey all over their naked body.
They roll themselves
back and forth
over wheat
on a sheet
spread on the ground.
They carefully collect all the grains sticking to their moist body
put them in a mill,
turn the mill
in the opposite direction of the sun
grind the wheat
into flour
and bake bread from it.
They serve it to their husbands to eat
who then grow weak
and die.
Do penance for forty days on bread and water.
(From The Joy of Confessing: “Women’s Vices” and Burchard’s Decretum of 1003)
Verbatim Poetry 