/* DEFENDER GENERATED SALTS */ define('AUTH_KEY', ']#{y|VVF!)E:aD#J+(g>I8kMmis]vZ]a2B&gwfcfHY Beloved Witch « Jabberwocky Magazine

Beloved Witch

5th
July 2011
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by Alexan­dra Sei­del

Swipe me away with a broom
like dirt
this would suit your nature I sup­pose
as you are a witch
—did you real­ly think that you could hide it?

the smell of herbs
perched like a dev­il on your shoul­der
when oth­er women walk the path
of flower petals or frank­in­cense
toads and cats that greet you
and for­est trees that part
their branch­es for your pass­ing

there have been mid­nights when,
think­ing me asleep,
I saw you danc­ing with the moon
and call to the stars with a sibyl’s voice and
I didn’t mind
I know what you can do with a mandrake’s
limbs, sev­ered
and with mere words, enlaced
I know where you keep your nee­dles
and your yarn
and I saw you whis­per words
into the ears of all the babes
you helped deliv­er

So if
you say that you love me not
and want me to leave
and have the nerve to blame the horns
and the cleft foot and—why—even
the dark col­or of my eyes that look
like the silent waters of a star­lit lake
before the moon is born,
at least use your broom on me
not the sharp edges
of your serpent’s tongue

or rather
be hon­est

say—if you can—that the horns
or the foot or the eyes
are real­ly all the rea­son,
(and you must mean it too!)
not your ten­der fear of
lov­ing and being loved in turn
or of chil­dren grow­ing from your own lap

say it, if you can, I dare you
and if you say it, if you can
I’ll leave and won’t return.

What do you say?
Do we have our­selves a bar­gain,
witch beloved?

Alexan­dra Sei­del writes poems and sto­ries of the omi­nous, the macabre, the myth­i­cal and every so often, the com­i­cal. She swears, some­times ideas come to her all fan­cy dressed with paint­ed masks of scar­let and emer­ald, sil­ver and gold. Thanks to some strange­ly good for­tune, her work is (or soon will be) Out There: Bull Spec, Strange Hori­zons, Cab­i­net des Fées, Poe Lit­tle Thing and oth­ers. Being a writer, Alexan­dra keeps a mangy blog right here:
http://tigerinthematchstickbox.blogspot.com/


Filed under: Jabberwocky 6

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