Witches' Wine (Halloween Poem)

Witches' Wine

Trance work takes mulling
mugwort and lemongrass,

honey to sweeten the pinch
of herbs first boiled in pig

fat, then strained of bittered
brew. Tinctures of henbane

and monkshood, hemlock
and belladonna, mandrake

and nightshade alter what
rites first sips from pewter

cups restore. Like a potent
flight from God of the Vine's

own pagan stores, the dose
ferments nocturnal dreams,

works magic clear as the coven's
call to mount manticores or

brooms. From the cauldron rise
no spirits distilled. The line is

drawn, the circle cast in forest
dark as the raven's hair. Now

from primal well is drawn vinum
sabbati — black wine of owls.

Feathers swirling, witches fly out,
dance on the face of a Blood Moon.

© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas