Tags
a witch to write, chances, country, kindness, poetry, regret, revenge, stake, village, witch, witchhunter
A Witch to Write
I want to tell you she was kind,
She was not kind,
Though she was fair.
She did us well,
She kept us from deaths door
Too many times to count,
Saw our babes and lambs
Safely into the world,
Helped our dying leave,
In peace, at the last.
I would like to tell you she was well loved,
That we repaid her kindness
With gentleness, good recompense,
That would be an untruth,
Whilst we knew her gifts,
We treated her with scorn,
Neglected to make her welcome,
Crossed ourselves as she passed,
Though so many of us owed her dear.
Debtors are loathe to pay
That which they cannot.
She had never asked for recompense,
But the guilt, rotted us,
Ate at us, turned us.. foul.
Children would spit,
throw refuse at her home,
Torment her cats,
We? We just stood by,
Allowed it, muttering to ourselves
Of the cruelty of children
The games of the young,
Though our own muttering
Was the cause of it.
When the witch hunters came to town,
There was not a one
Who stood up to protect her,
Defend her,
Claim her as our protector,
Not our curse.
We let them take her from her cottage,
Tie her to a stake
On the village green
Where in better times
We had danced our
Mayday lovers dance,
And light that damned taper.
The fire that should have spread,
Engulfing her,
Took our village instead.
It lunged backwards as the rain fell,
Thunder crackling as the witchfinder screamed,
Leaving our houses ash.
She left with the winds,
“I tried, I really tried”
Left us all bereft of home,
Though all alive,
Except the men who
Had come to take her.
In the dust of our homes, we wept,
For we realised our folly.
Her cottage on the hillside was
As gone as she,
Not a stone to remember her,
Though we all knew our sins.
Our lives,
Our repentance,
A last kindness
we did not deserve
From one we should have treated better.
You can listen to this and a few of my others, read by me, on my soundcloud 😉
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I’m putting all this up for the love of writing and your enjoyment, and if you would like to use it for your own purposes that would be awesome. However, it’s my writing, and I must ask you to ask me first, and credit me (obviously). Also, if you do I’d really love to see/hear/watch it!
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https://www.patreon.com/lonpops .
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Lots of love,
Henry
xx