October 28: Hermione Granger, Louise Gluck, "All Hallows"

A good friend of mine has really liked my Halloween poems, but she has been troubled that one particular Halloween denizen has not received attention:  the witch.

This omission is not due to any kind of hetero-normative male agenda on my part.  I fully support feminist causes.  My best friends are female.  My favorite Harry Potter character is Hermione Granger.  I voted for Hillary.  My wife often tells me that I'm practically a woman.

Saint Marty gives the witch her due today.

All Hallows

by:  Louise Gluck

Even now this landscape is assembling.

The hills darken. The oxen

sleep in their blue yoke,

the fields having been

picked clean, the sheaves

bound evenly and piled at the roadside

among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness

of harvest or pestilence.

And the wife leaning out the window

with her hand extended, as in payment,

and the seeds

distinct, gold, calling

Come here

Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.