Sorceress of Fear

The night was blue ink
On a black canvas,
Dripping into every crack
Where the silence that filled the air
Grew louder as shadows deepened.

Coal black hair
Against pearly white,
She stood in a bramble ring
Flanked by four-footed guards
Invisible in the night,
And there she held court
with the gods.

Her chants rose skyward
Between the spirals of tall pines
And drifted on an eerie breeze
That hovered, 
Mixed with chimney smoke,
Then crept across the hills
In hushed whispers,
Knocking on the windows
Of sleeping souls.

The deed done,
She lifted her face to the truant moon
And as the silence swallowed her
And the clouds parted
To the first star,
She faded 
On the first breath 
Of light. 


june 2006
Janet Reid