Maria Rose

Salem, Massachusets
1692
Maria Rose will hang today
Maria Rose is a witch and cohorts with black cats and runt pigs
And she will hang today
Maria Rose lives down the lane from me
In the twisted cobblehouse with a strange brother and a strange mother
And no father at all
Maria Rose steals butter from larders in the dead of night and curses girls to flirt devilishly
Maria Rose screams at the pastor and knows how to shoot a bow and has never shut her mouth in her life
Not once
Maria Rose smells like smoke and myrrh and sin and forbidden apples
Maria Rose will hang today and our village will rid the Arc of pestilence and we will Prevail
Maria Rose and her calloused hands and her sun-kissed hair
And the way she wasn't afraid of the moon and how she could swim
Andthe glint in her eye and the knife in her pocket and the poison on her lips
Maria Rose who's mouth tastes like honey and arms feel like feathers
Maria Rose who fuzzied my mind and curled my hair and cursed my bedsheets
Maria Rose who tricked my heart into fluttering and spelled my hands to long for hers
Maria Rose will hang today