Hypatia
Bronwyn Lovell
Long before it was a lunar crater,
she was a woman made of flesh
and blood, a learned philosopher
and great astronomer whose skin
was torn off by a Christian mob.
They stripped, minced her with
tiles; set her alight and dragged
her sorry heap through cobbled
streets till she died. All because
she dared to observe the sky,
failed to lower her eyes, would
not be docile, was not ashamed
to speak in the assembly of men;
stepped boldly out of the social
order and was duly slaughtered.