Poem: Candenza For a Witch

 

Cadenza For a Witch

 

raven whose feathers are hummingbirds.

whose stride

reconciles butterfly and vulture.

 she spreads wings, a landscape from  

honeysuckle to bloodroot.  

she romps heartful, 

moon-kilned of asters,

while evening and dawn stretch

to kiss.

 

her  crown around the world 

births new days as she leaps to 

play wyldward, gather anise from stars,

pluck mangos from noon.  she 

 chides landslides and threads their  

brambles to sew petals.

she soothes beaches of sandy 

fortune when coins skitter away, whisked to  

sparkle in receding foam.

 only the humans, it seems, 

cannot be salved by her spells,

toiling along in traps of fear,

their stress mussing the weave 

of her mandalian tresses.

and yet she dances

and dances even in lament, 

even when her children have no conjure anymore.

no cauldron to summon ancestors.

no asphodels to tease

from a play of claws.

========================

8/26 ...  feeble attempts. . i should really just leave the witches alone

5/3/26 ... major mods

2/17 -18 ... changed some words for clarity