Orchestraccia

 

Porte D'entrée

 

Christopher Cadra

 

Peter Cherches

 

Wortley Clutterbuck

 

Paul Compton

 

Mary Elizabeth Counselman

{below}

 

John M. Floyd

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Ronal Kayser

 

M.E. Proctor

 

Daniel A. Rabuzzi

 

Victor Rowan

 

♥  ♠  ♦  ♣

 

Mary Elizabeth Counselman

Witch-Burning

 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square

Last Friday afternoon.

The faggot-smoke was blacker than

The shadows on the moon;

 

The licking flames were strangely green

Like fox-fire on the fen . . .

And she who cursed the godly folk

Will never curse again.

 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square

Before the village gate.

A huswife raised a skinny hand

To damn her, tense with hate.

 

A huckster threw a jagged stone—

Her pallid cheek ran red . . .

But there was something scornful in

The way she held her head.

 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square;

Her eyes were terror-wild.

She was a slight, a comely maid,

No taller than a child.

 

They bound her fast against the stake

And laughed to see her fear . . .

Her red lips muttered secret words

That no one dared to hear.

 

They burned a witch in Bingham Square—

But ere she swooned with pain

And ere her bones were sodden ash

Beneath the sudden rain,

 

She set her mark upon that throng . . .

For time can not erase

The echo of her anguished cries,

The memory of her face.