Witches
Why were there witches?
Why, what were they to do,
widows and virgins, women deprived
of the love of men by the death of men?
Those warriors with their wars,
always a'killing of each other,
leaving the grieving, the surviving
and the loneliness to women.
No bigamy or polygamy.
The hunger for family
cries on village edge.
How were these starvelings to live?
When bodies no longer sell,
clients condemn,
thrusting away the woman
with their own dark side.
Could they not have paid
for the loan of her body
with life?
What of mercy?
The excuse for execution,
for drowning, burning, hanging
and God knows what cruelty?
A few herbs, a little knowledge.
What else had she to sell?
Why were there witches?
Ignorance, bloody ignorance.
Ignorance and violence.
But what of those few
who really do open doors best left shut?
What of the Faustian few
who do not sup with a long spoon?
This one germinated during a long, spooky drive across Dartmoor in thick mist
Dave Bradley
Mon 4th Apr 2011 23:40
Thank you for the comments everyone. The point of the picture was to show how people used to caricature witches and (still do) and didn't see them as human beings. But it seems it was ill judged. I'd remove it if I could figure out how.
Special thanks to Anthony for the Monty Python link. Making much the same point in a far more devastating way.
PS As well as the drive, I had a walk across Dartmoor in thick mist, and I swear some hounds started howling nearby. Heaven knows where they were, because there's nothing there. Or is there.........?