Practically Magic

Round Hocus Pocus and Abracadabra

we can draw a magic circle

with ignorance and superstition

and keep our fears within it.

Every miraculous illusion

has a rationale, an explanation:

smoke and mirrors,

a man hidden inside the Turk.

We look for magic in the unfamiliar

and find it where there is none.

Magic! Witchcraft, convenient charges

to lay at wise-women’s doors.

Their cupboards are far from bare,

but full of jars and potions,

herbs, mushrooms, and woodland plants.

The mortar needs its pestle,

a lonely woman may ride the broom and fly

without leaving the ground.

How many recipes

were mistaken

for a spell?

Who placed this fear

of magic, of witches,

of women, in the male

heart?

After so many years

we are still so weak

as to blame a succubus

and not ourselves.