A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms
A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms
The law forbids all witches to exist
or us to visit them, but now and then
it happens that we need a conjurist.
Then through the spider webs of morning mist
we tremulously seek the witch’s den.
The law forbids all witches to exist
and it’s a risky business to enlist
the aid of occult agencies. But when
it happens that we need a conjurist
to tell us where to find the amethyst
ring or the will or even Uncle Ben,
the law forbidding witches to exist
seems too severe. And when we want a tryst
with our dead loves, we run a desperate pen
through any law that blocks our conjurist.
Witches are marginal. They’re never missed.
And have you noticed few of them are men?
The law forbids all witches to exist,
at least until we need a conjurist.
Gail White is active in the formalist poetry movement, with recent or forthcoming work in Measure, Raintown Review, and other journals. Her poems appear in the Best of Barefoot Muse anthology, Southern Poetry-Louisiana, and two Pocket Poets anthologies. She co-edited the anthology The Muse Strikes Back and is the author of three books of poetry, the latest being The Accidental Cynic. Her new chapbook, Sonnets in a Hostile World, is available from Amazon. She lives with her husband and three cats in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.