(c) 3/4/2022
All parts of
the Yew tree are poisonous.
Tea steeped
from the leaves easily makes
a small
child sick. Placed in wise womanly hands
Yew heals swollen
tonsils, inflamed joints,
and aborts.
Some
believe the trunk
of the
church-yard Yew contains purifying properties,
like a
baptismal font.
Townsmen choose Yew wood as rods
to bludgeon
the stranger for the sin
of being a stranger.
Rods hewn
from Yew trees offer balance
to the
crippled witch.
Yew rods
have been cut to hold up the climbing vine,
to frame a
window; to offer the magician
a wooden
bridge between her hand,
earth, and
the sky.
Everything
depends on what is cut, or whether
it is ever
picked up.
