Kate Holly-Clark
WITCH'S BOTTLE
She knows how it's
done, this particular
kitchen-spell
although she can't remember
how she knows
something so far back
so part of home
whispered amongst the women
never spoken of in mixed company
or in front of those
who spoke publicly and comfortably
of being godly
The jar in her hand,
she steals through the house
although he is gone,
she knows, for the evening
but she avoids the slow-
sighing board in the hall
anyway
Hair from the brush,
with a certain word
back down to the kitchen
for pepper to
make him sneeze
and cinnamon for itch
salt for the tears
that she was so ashamed
of the night
he slapped her and called her names.
Drain cleaner to push away
the clogging, useless love for him
shards from her
granny's mirror that
he put his fist through
earlier today.
The special words
are coming back
more easily to her now–
bubbling green
and lichen-tasting and cold
from those
half-heard
kitchen chats
that she'd scornfully
tossed her teenaged head at
and pronounced silly
Somehow here in the dark
surrounded by the treasures
and the body he's broken
they fall more solid into the air
She's past the point now
of wishing him dead
she wishes him never
born, never grown
never loved, never
carelessly cruel
and brilliantly able
to freeze her into place
eyes wide and dazzled
She tops off the jar and
screws on the lid
and hesitates in her own kitchen
she knows
she should get it
away from her, away from the house–
she is yet uneasy and embarrassed
about the malice and
the fury and fear
just…being left somewhere…
for some random stranger to maybe find?
A car pulls into her
drive and she flinches
until she sees
it has lights,
flashing blue and white
She squares her shoulders
puts the jar under the sink
and goes to find out
if the kitchen talk
was right.
Kate Holly-Clark is disabled, a professional storyteller, artist, and jeweler
living in New Hampshire. She has written poetry for nearly 40 years, and has previously been
published in some regional literary magazines and in O-Dark-Thirty most recently.
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