At what age

At what age does a woman become

a spinster and a spinster become a witch?

Let me jump the line, sneak to the front of the queue.

Let me be the witch now, before spinster,

before woman.

I’ve read the archives, surveyed the scripture

and sepia daguerreotypes.

I was always the witch,

the herbalist,

the storyteller at the edge of the forest,

on the intersection of reversing poles.

Shunned until you brought yourselves

broken in bone and spirit

admitting need.

That’s why you burned my people.

We remind you that male is also human

and that all humans break.