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Spellbound—The Witch Discovers Magic
by Liz Kay

May 31, 2021 Contributed By: Liz Kay

"Mementos" by Devin Forst
Image by Devin Forst courtesy of Liz Kay

The first spring lamb was born blind, and before the days grew
full long, three women died in their birthing beds-one
we buried with her belly still large, the babe stuck tight
inside her. Midwife said there must be a witch in our midst,
twisting shut the wombs with some black, black magic.
She made a bottle to ward her off, pissed into the glass,
and added clippings of all our nails and hair. For each of the children
to die since Yule, she dropped in a metal pin, seven
in total. Then through a heart-shaped scrap of leather,
she pushed an iron nail, dropped it into the bottle,
and sealed it shut. They buried the bottle in the center
of the village, and that night as I lay in my narrow bed, I felt
a dampness on my sleeping dress—a tiny hole, a pinprick,
and from it, a trickle of blood spilled out.

SEE MORE: Interview with Liz Kay


LIZ KAY’s poems have appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Nimrod, Willow Springs, The New York Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review, Redactions, and Sugar House Review. She is the author of The Witch Tells the Story and Makes it True (Quarter Press), the chapbook, Something to Help Me Sleep (dancing girl press), and the novel, Monsters: A Love Story (Putnam). Liz lives in Omaha, NE, with her husband and three sons.

Filed Under: Featured Content, Poetry Posted On: May 31, 2021

Further Reading

A Tour of Ancient Lykia (A Letter Sent to Albert Goldbarth)
by Vincent Czyz

  13 September 2006 Dear Albert, A return to the art … or is it merely a craft? Of letter-writing. Certainly different from writing an e-mail, which is generally dashed off in a few minutes—a single sitting at most. But still different from the old days of pen and ink or even of the manual […]

Mr. Z by Grzegorz Wróblewski
Translated from the Polish by Peter Burzyński

Mr. Z opened the door to a preacher of the One Truth: the man in a hat looked around the room.

HALF FULL: PART II by Mithu Sen

Return to table of contents for PRACTICES, POWER & THE PUBLIC SPHERE Return to table of contents for Issue 2 Winter 2010

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