Appeal - A Poem

A Story of Cruentation.

Written in 2021 for a university class.

I hope you enjoy.

Photo by Jeff Hardi on Unsplash

I am ushered slowly in,

All the men are dressed in black,

Holy men,

At least, I hope,

And then the scent is in the air,

Thick and noisome, burrowing,

Heavy in my head and heart,

I can feel it on my skin.

Now I walk toward the thing,

Lying motionless and cold,

Clammier than any fish,

Though both creature’s eyes are blank,

And I press my hands on it,

Retching slightly as I do,

Hoping that it’s quickly done,

Hoping I can quickly leave,

But then, oh!

I am undone,

As the fleshy carcass splits,

And I raise my hands up high,

Everyone can see the blood,

And as I am dragged away,

I can hear the bastard laugh.

This poem is about a trial by cruentation. Below are some sources that touch on this topic:

“…Used in early Europe as a method of divining guilt in murder cases until at least 1700. The concept behind it - that a corpse would bleed in the presence of its killer - has been written about since as early as the 13th century (in Hartmann Von Aue’s Iwain, for example).”

Paolo de Ceglia, Francesco, ‘The Body of Evidence’, Chapter 1, 2020 <https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004284821/BP000010.xml> [15/2/22])

---

“Cruentation is what is known as a trial by ordeal. An alternative example would be how in Madagascar, Malagasy authorities would sometimes force tangena, a toxic nut, into people’s mouths, along with several pieces of chicken skin - if the skin was vomited up, the accused would be found innocent”

(https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/madagascar/surviving/frights2.html)

---

“Cruentation essentially involved forcing a person to touch the corpse of a murder victim - if it bled, it was deemed God’s judgment that this person was the killer. The practice was, however, questioned, in both the 16th and 17th centuries”

(https://dbpedia.org/page/Cruentation)

---

As ever, thanks for reading,

Until next time,

H.E.

---