A rich bachelor build a house near a lake
so close to the water
that he could fish for rainbow trout from its verandah.
Alas little did he know that the lake had been used
as an execution place
they used to drown witches here
women who insisted that they were equal to men,
even superior, this most womenfolk knew
but witches couldn’t be quiet about it
boasted and bragged at the town’s square,
hence the drowning.

Their lived in the lake’s silt
but now with a house by the shore
they moved in and the unmarried angler fled
while pulling his hair, overcome he was by domestic anxiety.
From open windows the smell of soap suds wafted through the night
challenging any man to come near.
Then lightening struck or was it petroleum?
Witches screamed as they were turned into streaks of blue flames
and dived back into cooling silt.