Tags:
United States,
Fiction,
General,
Historical,
Juvenile Nonfiction,
People & Places,
Juvenile Fiction,
Fantasy & Magic,
Occult fiction,
Girls & Women,
Witchcraft,
Poetry,
Novels in Verse,
Trials (Witchcraft),
Salem (Mass.),
Salem (Mass.) - History - Colonial period; ca. 1600-1775
menace!â
ââTis true.â One calls from the crowd.
I crumble to see it be Isaac.
He motions for me to follow him
after he speaks.
âThese girls be innocent,â Uncle says.
Aunt Ann clasps my hand
meaning to reassure me,
telling me to stay with my family.
I know not whether to move my feet
to Isaac or stay.
A GIRL OR A WIFE?
Margaret Walcott, 17
âMargaret, be you part of the group?â
Ann looks on me like I be a traitor.
âYea,â I say. âI have nothing
against your group.â
Ann shakes her head.
âWe are not fools, you and I,â she says.
âI beg thee, cousin. Thou art given warning.â
I pick up my skirts and march
from the room. I could smash
all around me to shipwreck.
âThink on this well,â
my cousinâs voice rattles
down the hallway.
I will pack and leave this house.
I will go back home and stay
quiet in my house till spring
and I wed Isaac. Iâll not be ruled
by some little brat and her servant.
âMargaret, that dress looks smart on thee.â
Aunt Ann waves me into her room.
âDidst thou sleep with peace
or were the witches at thee?â
I nod. âThe witches were âbout.â
âPoor dear,â she says.
âCome and stay with me as I spin.â
She drafts the wool between her hands.
âI am so glad that you are here.
Ann needs a proper influence.
She looks to that Mercy.â
Aunt spits as she says the servantâs name.
Aunt quits her drafting.
She sits me at her dressing table
and pulls from a box
a necklace of red jewels
liken I never laid eyes âpon.
âLet me see how this does look on thee.â
Aunt gasps and my jaw does fall wide.
âYou shall wear it on thy wedding day.â
âBut âtis veryââ
Aunt shakes her finger at me, âI insist.â
âNow come, I shall teach you
how best to treadle the wheel.
When you make a wife
you must know these things.â
She lumbers a bit into the chair
but then her foot
be like one possessed and pumps
fast as a horse at gallop.
âYou must keep a constant pressure.â
She releases her foot and the threads
do twist apart.
âNow tell me. What witches?
Who didst thou see last night?
John Willard, did he visit thee?
Our old preacher, Reverend Burroughs?
Or perhaps Charlotte Easty, the other
sister of Rebecca Nurse?â
Aunt looks on me
like I be not only
the light in the room,
but the greatest light
in the house.
JOHN WILLARD
Margaret Walcott, 17
âOh, he bites me!â
Ann cries and rubs her arm.
The court orders John Willard
to stop biting his lips
and keep his mouth wide.
Abigail screams
and all eyes draw to her.
Elizabethâs seizures mount
and her joints double and turn
nearly inside out.
Fingers point at the wizard Willard,
but still he claims, âI am innocent
as the child unborn.â
Susannah Sheldon shrieks,
âThe Devil whispers in his ear!â
She takes watchful steps
across the courtroom
and collapses ten feet
in front of John Willard.
Constable John Putnam,
another uncle of mine,
carries her forward,
tips a bit under her weight.
They place John Willardâs hand
âpon her forehead. Susannah screams
when he touches her
like sheâs been branded
by a hot iron,
when instead she should silence.
The good folk rumble,
âWhy does not the touch test work?
Is Willard not a wizard?â
I be not sure what to do.
Isaacâs eyes spear the other girls.
Ann mouths, âMargaret, please.â
I scream loud enough to curdle milk
and tumble into fit, jerk and twitch
better than them all.
I be lifted by Marshal Herrick
and before I feel my feet
leave the ground, my shaking bones
are brushed by the scaly hand
of Goodman Willard.
He touches me, and as the touch test says,
the wickedness flows back into him.
I stop all my rattling.
Pointed fingers and righteous eyes
hang