The Halloween Witch
Each year they parade her about ... The traditional witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair,
and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose.
Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw,
protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.
Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, merely a Halloween caricature.
I disagree.
I believe this is how witches were really seen.
Consider that most witches were women, were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under secrecy of darkness,
to be presented by the light of the day as a confessed witch.
Few, if any, saw a frightened,
normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture.
To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her,
and to give names or whatever would stop the questions.
Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.
As the witch was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned,
or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love...
All created to free and save her soul from her depraved body.
The crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.
The face, bruised and broke, by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green.
The once warm and loving smile gone.
Replaced by a grimace broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered,
disfigured nose.
The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away lovely tresses.
Broken, twisted hands clutched the wagon for support.
Fractured fingers locked like groping claws to steady her broken body.
All resemblances of humanity gone.
This was truly a demon, a Satan, a witch.
I revere this Halloween crone and hold her sacred above all.
I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity.
Each year I shed tears of respect and remember her involuntary sacrifice in the name of religion.
Written by Angel 6/99
This poem that reminds us of those who were persecuted as witches,
though many were healers and midwives, women who owned land,
and those who spoke out against the rules of the time.
This poem is not in any way intended to 'bash" Christianity, it is simply a reference to the history that is fact based.
With these things in mind I hope you will remember the Halloween Witch, along with all the others who have gone before you.
(personal note:even though someone needs to be held accountable for the atrocities created in the name of Christianity,,in the name of a loving god...in the name of righteousness to be honest these horrible things done ARE sanctioned and encouraged in the Bible..they are not aberrations of scripture.Christians need to own up to what their bible commands them to do and quite watering down the evilness of the scriptures to destroy non believers. Anyone who claims to only take part of the scripture--the NICE and loving part is a hypocrite!!)
