Secrets of the Spell

                    I. Wasted Breath

Spite stirred in guts like poison mixed incake.
Insistent maleness and disparity
Assembled heated breath, enough to hex
A British play. Heed this — or rue the day.

Old Scottish combat zones, intent on war’s
Mythology and trophies, replicate
Themselves wherever men fish for acclaim
To get their stories splashed across the stars—
In letters, law, or laboratories.

When males engage with chemicals, rank brines,
Intent on alchemy, employing fire,
Rapt by discoveries perhaps benign,
They’re being scientific, praised. They’ll bask
Inbacklit glows that manly fame bestows.

                              The patriarchy does its best to hoard
                              Awards — like weapons needed for attacks.

When females huddle over cauldron smoke,
Ancestral recipes astir once more,
Rapt by solutions stronger than strychnine,
Which sheriff thought, “Girls having fun outdoors!”?
Suspicious scribes malign spell-casting crones,
Implying they are doing devil’s work.

                              The patriarchy does its best to warn,
                              Forbid, discourage daughters, sisters, wives
                              By commandeering rights to accolades.

Distrust of women’s power led to laws.
In 1542, King Henry VIII
Signed Britain’s first Witchcraft Act. Hundreds died,
Even if those accused denied the charge.

                    II. Macbeth

Elizabethan dramatists — all men! —
Put witches in the plot for novelty.

Meanwhile, witch hunts harassed the innocent.

                              Misogyny’s increase deserved byplay.
                              Real sorceresses jinxed “the Scottish play,”
                              Their hex comeuppance. Bloodshed was repaid.

Macbeth depicts a pagan coven — though
Their wisdom’s minimized by childish speech
Like “Double, double, toil, and trouble” — rhymes
For children, to infantilize this spell.

With “eye of newt, toe of frog,” thespians
Portraying the Weird Sisters cursed the Thane
Of Cawdor, who rebelled against his king.

Macbeth’s debut was struck— streaked with bad luck.

                    III. Met Death

Before Scene 5, the Bard went backstage — found
Lady Macbeth mystifyingly dead,
Unnerving King James in his royal box.

Which elements affected Brits the most?
Staged sorcery incited constant fear
His majesty intensified with trials.

Mark my words: women have always fought back,
Preserved infernal mysteries. Bewitched.
Dark invocations learned by stealth live on.

                              Macbeth’s unholy spell won’t be withdrawn
                              ‘Til every “witch’s” unfair death is mourned.