Upon Being Called a Witch at Age 15
When I tell the story
it sounds like a joke?
“Are you a witch?”
Classmates twittered
as he jabbed
a bratwurst finger
and I burned red
from the tits up.
“I said. Are. You. A. Witch.”
Whatever I’d have said
wouldn’t have mattered.
Minds were made up
before John was a Baptist.
“The BIBLE says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”
I was such a good girl
long skirts
locked knees
but a treachery
of questions.
And weaker sexes than mine
have burned for less.
“First Samuel Fifteen Twenty-Three”
That day wasn’t the one
that broke me but
it left a crack—that’s how
the magic gets in.
“I sense a spirit of rebellion in you”
Patriarchs demand submission.
If you cannot bend you must
break or begone. I left
slowly, heart first.
Years later my feet
caught up.
“so you must be a witch.”
01.19 | New Hymns