(The Hammer of Witches, 1486)
Witches Cauldron
Once the damned handbook had been written
and the god squad snapped into battle
with their finger breakers and the ducking stools
the gendercide began: herbalists, midwives,
wise old women licking and blistering, skin
popping, hair catching like dried bracken….
Those that escaped packed into the moon
like forming a ball of pastry. It is rolled and cut.
Rolled and cut, while on and on the hurley burley:
women rupturing inside out; strong girls
lashed, electric bolts shot through their heads.
A dead badger is slumped like a blooded coat.
A parcel of oystercatchers launches into the sky,
vanishes on a turn. Another appears as if from tomorrow.
The moon keeps pulling the tide.
It is rolled and cut, rolled and cut.