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Unread 11-06-2017, 09:18 PM
Gail White's Avatar
Gail White Gail White is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Breaux Bridge, LA, USA
Posts: 3,485
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I thought more people would add to this! Surely more of us have written creepy verse?
Anyway, I am brazenly going to add one more, because I just found this in an old folder of science fiction. I never sent it for publication, but I never threw it away either, so here goes:

WITCHES CHANGE-SONG

You see how low the white mist lies
and curls among the trees.
So subtly can we change our shape
so suit our fantasies.

You see how thick the chestnut burrs
lie broken on the stone.
So softly can we cast our skin
and take another on.

The woman's skin across the chair
like a harmless housedress lies,
and the cat's skin wrinkles on our back,
its light shines in our eyes.

Then sorrow falls on the villagers
who have done us women harm:
we drain the milk from their stolid cows
and blight their corn in the barn.

The mother by her sick child's bed
shall watch with a hopeless eye.
The girl will scratch her lover's face
and quarrel she knows not why.

But the black cat sits in the windowsill
and runs along the ground,
and our conclave dances in the wood
until the dawn comes round.

You see the white mist rise and fade
like smoke when soft wood burns.
Just so our cat-shape falls away
and our woman-shape returns.
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