The Witch of the Third Night by Alexandra Seidel
Dec 15th, 2011 | By CdF | Category: Issue 14 (December 2011), Scheherezades Bequest
The Witch of the Third Night
by Alexandra Seidel
On the first night
they brought her straw
an entire harvest wagon full
and told her to spin gold from it
she told them that she couldn’t
that humans cannot
coax gold from straw
They didn’t care
they locked her in
and locked the straw in with her
and the moon was full
On the second night
they brought her salt
a small ocean full of salt
and told her to reel silk from it
she told them that she couldn’t
that humans cannot
charm silk from salt
They never listened
never cared
bolted fast the door
and let her sleep among the salt
and that night
the moon was waning
On the third night
when the moon was black
they didn’t come at all
or rather
not all at one time
she liked men even less
after it was done
and found
that she could make a dye of red
with spindle pointed, poised, and brought down fast
they left her all alone
after that black moon night
and
the moon was almost full again
when she had made a house from chicken feet
and from burning skulls
and had put the young ones to sleep
down down
in the dark
Alexandra Seidel writes poems and stories of the ominous, the macabre, the mythical and every so often, the comical. She swears, sometimes ideas come to her all fancy dressed with painted masks of scarlet and emerald, silver and gold. Thanks to some strangely good fortune, her work is (or soon will be) Out There: Mythic Delirium, Strange Horizons, Cabinet des Fées, Dreams & Nightmares and others. Being a writer, Alexandra keeps a mangy blog right here: http://tigerinthematchstickbox.blogspot.com/
Alexandra is going strong this month! I always enjoy her work.