*

A holy day for Christians is Good Friday, when the Cross
held up our Saviour to the sun in agony and loss.
But Pendle’s coven meet this day to feast and sing and wail,
And, at the Malkin Tower, plot to break their kin from gaol.

But Jennet tells the magistrates, who hunt the coven down
and send the plotters chained to join their sisters in the town.
Old Demdike cheats the hangman. Lying blindly down, she dies.
Ten others are convicted at the Lammastide Assize.

The gallows is a new affair that takes ten souls in all;
it stands before a baying crowd within the Castle wall.
Those few who were acquitted may be back before too long.
No prayers to God or Devil save the necks of those who hang.

*

So all you mystic ladies who have listened to my song,
The tale of Pendle witchcraft running days and years along,
consider whether Alizon and Demdike had the skill
to terrify a neighbourhood with hints that they could kill.

Consider whether Christian souls should name those deeds as sin
among the many terrors that we conjure from within.
Consider whether witchcraft is a clever thing or no;
or are we simply gullible when fear begins to grow.

*