The Witches of Salem

Red cats, black dogs, yellow birds in the morning Visions and dreams were an ominous warning That witches were brewing in Salem that year As terror of covens filled townsfolk with fear Tituba, the slave, then Lizzie the vagrant The charges so menacing, so utterly flagrant Next came old Sarah, an elderly lady A hermit it’s said, her character shady While citizens huddled in fear in their rooms As witches zoomed past them on magical brooms And candles mysteriously lit by themselves While ghosts rearranged all the books on the shelves And all the black cats disappeared from the town Soon streets were deserted with no one around. As neighbors suspiciously peered through their curtains Looking for something but no one was certain If a witch would ride in on a vaporous ether Floating on fog that flowed bleak beneath her. What should they look for, what would they hear, To warn that a witch was really quite near? A neighbor today, a menace tomorrow, The town was soon filled with suspicion and sorrow. Twenty good people were hung for their deeds Innocent all, fulfilling the needs To cleanse the town of witches and evil With tortures and horror quite like those medieval Four died in prison before they’d atoned And one died after being hard-pressed with stones A town swept of witches that never had been A place free of evil, of witchcraft and sin A town’s troubled shame in want of release So those tortured souls may now rest in peace