Halloween Witch
By Angel (Petals & Thorns poetry by Angel June-26-1999)
Each year they parade her about,
the traditional Halloween Witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair,
a toothless mouth beneath her deformed nose.
Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw’
protracting from a bent and twisted torso
that lurches about on wobbly legs.
Most think this abject image
to be the creation of a prejudiced mind
or merely a Halloween caricature.
I disagree,
I believe this to be how Witches were really seen.
Consider that most Witches:
were women,
were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the
secrecy of darkness
to be presented by light of day
as a confessed Witch.
Few if any saw a frightened normal looking woman
being dragged into a secret room filled with
instruments of torture,
to be questioned until she confessed to anything
suggested to her
and to give names or what ever would stop the
questions.
Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world
as a self-proclaimed Witch.
As the Witch was paraded through town
en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned
or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love
all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body
the jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.
The face bruised and broken by countless blows
bore a hue of sickly green.
The once warm and loving smile gone
replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums
that leers beneath a battered disfigured nose.
The disheveled hair conceals
bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence
cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses.
Broken twisted hands clutched the wagon for support,
fractured fingers with nails torn away
locked like groping claws to steady her broken body.
All semblance of humanity gone
this was truly a demon,
a bride of Satan,
a Witch.
I revere this Halloween Crone
and hold her sacred above all.
I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the
dark side of man.
Each year I shed tears of respect
when the mundane exhibit their symbol of Christian love.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Samhain is approaching, and the secular holiday of Halloween.
Samhain is the time of year when the veil between the worlds grows thin and we honor those who have passed on from this world. The previous poem reminds us of those who were persecuted as witches, though many were healers and midwives, women who owned land, and those who spoke out against the rules of the time. I don’t know the name of the author, other than the name Angel. Other places may credit it to anonymous. If anyone who reads this happens to know who the author is I would love to know.
This poem is not in any way intended to “bash” Christianity, it is simply a reference to the history that is fact based. Please bear in mind that as Wiccans we believe in tolerance and we do not try to persuade others to join our faith.
With these things in mind I hope you will remember the Halloween Witch, along with all of the others who have gone before you at Samhain time.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4522.asp
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