When the Vatican made Mary’s Assumption dogma,
the crowds at San Pietro screamed Papá.
The Holy Father dropped his shaving glass,
and listened. His electric razor purred,
his pet canary chirped on his left hand.
The lights of science couldn’t hold a candle
to Mary risen – at one miraculous stroke,
angel-wing’d, gorgeous as a jungle bird!
But who believed this? Who could understand?
Pilgrims still kissed Saint Peter’s brazen sandal.
The Duce’s lynched, bare, booted skull still spoke.
God herded his people to the coup de grâce –
the costumed Switzers sloped their pikes to push,
O Pius, through the monstrous human crush…
– Robert Lowell
“Beyond the Alps”