Weighing Words
in the Palace of the Inquisition,
in the Caribbean town,
they weighed women
on a platform
hung on chains
with a metal balance
hooked to the ceiling.
if you were too thin a woman,
were you so because you flew?
catch questions line the walls.
do you use the devil’s name
in your incantations?
who is your master?
who taught you to fly?
the authorities squirted liquid
into your eyes.
if you did not cry
you were witch.
tonight in this Palace, on a platform,
three poets pitch words into the space
where the ash of 800 women
floated through the air.
I read of Osiris who
weighed
your heart against a feather.
of Aquinas who imaged hate as ice
and love as a melting.
my fellow poets, women,
raise questions, author images,
cast spells, smoulder words
that melt my tears
and set the hall burning.
June 05