The Once and Future Witches

by Alix E. Harrow

She’s asking: Aren’t you tired yet? Of being cast down and cast aside? Of making do with crumbs when once we wore crowns? She’s asking: Aren’t you angry yet?

Bella informs her that this is the precise reason why women’s dresses no longer have pockets, to show they bear no witch-ways or ill intentions, and Juniper responds that she has both, thank you very damn much.

Maiden, Mother, and Crone, Guard the bed that I lie on, One to watch, One to pray, One to keep the shadows at bay. A warding spell, requiring salt & thistleseed

her growing suspicion that witchcraft isn’t one thing but many things, all the ways and words women have found to wreak their wills on the world.

That’s all magic is, really: the space between what you have and what you need.”