New Forest Hedge Witch

by Paul Tristram / May 26th, 2019

It’s the very first time
that I’ve actually smelt ‘Charisma’,
it’s beech wood smoke,
sweet cider, and warm PVC.
Encyclopaedia eyes,
I stood, mostly, transparent before her.
She cast the stones,
and chicken bones,
through a cloud of sage.
“Fascinating” She winked,
“You, not the Runes.
My, but you’re an old one,
they cut you outta different stuff”
I watched her gnarly fingers help to explain,
just like children sometimes do.
No theatrics,
her voice wind-whispered
and wave-lapped
in perfect synchronicity
with her ever twisting,
sparrow hawk, focus.
I had a momentary
out-of-body experience
roughly halfway through.
At the goodbye doorstep,
I tried for the 2nd time to give her money,
but, she shook my hand away with a
“They Said Not A Penny, You’re Special.”

Paul Tristram is a widely published Welsh writer who deals in the Lowlife, Outsider, and Outlaw genres.  He wrote his first poem as a teenager following his release from the (Infamous) Borstal ‘HMP Portland’, and he has been creating Literary Terrorism ever since.  His novel ‘Crazy Like Emotion’ is available to purchase right here . Also his collection of shorter fiction Kicking Back Drunk ‘Round The Candletree Graves' is available to purchase at https://bookgoodies.com/a/B0DFMTSR4F Both books are published by Close To The Bone Publishing. Read other articles by Paul, or visit Paul's website.

This article was posted on Sunday, May 26th, 2019 at 8:03am and is filed under Poetry.