based on a real story

witches do not exist anymore

we made sure of that

burned them drowned them

rewrote their stories

until the word woman meant

something safer

something silent

and still

i write this with urgency

while the room still tastes

like her skin and the air

hasn't yet cooled from 

her touch

because not all witches 

died in the salem trials

not all were consumed

by the fires and fear

one escaped

she carried her shadow

across the ocean and

passed it down

not like a curse

but like an heirloom

her daughter grew in secret

and that daughter

became Vanessa

Vanessa

who stands in my kitchen

drinking ice-cold water

with that same mouth i

had in me last night

Vanessa

who left my bed still trembling

as if the sheets themselves

needed to recover from

the spell she cast with

her hands and thighs

she moves like a rumor

told only at dusk

the kind of story old towns

make up to explain the

strange pull of the woods

or the way dreams 

bleed into waking

they say she's like a god

but they don't understand

she is more than a god

she's what gods fear

in the dark

she is creation and undoing

the flicker before the fire

the breath before the blade

she hums when she walks

some ancient hymn with

no lyrics just intention

just danger made soft

wait

she's coming back now

she's singing

i wanna feel you

her voice

too high too sweet

like glass about to break

hold on 

is that a knif-