This poem was inspired by Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Carlo Ginzburg
Ember Days
There are women
Who during the Ember Days
Go out of their senses travel
On strange nocturnal journeys
Compelled to wander until
Their allotted time has elapsed
They congregate on Thursdays
Dreaming abandoning their bodies
Their spirits fly over the woods
In nocturnal cavalcades
The wild hunt shrieking
Through fields of pastured animals
To the briar patches of Mount Venus
The meadow of the Madonna
The circle in the swamp
Under the legendary walnut tree
There
They worship the Mistress of the Game
A certain woman called the Abbess
The Sorceress The Charmer seated
In majesty on the edge of the well
Filled with water reflecting
A multi formed female deity
Arboreal and vegetal goddess
Abundia Satia Diana Perchta
After they have knelt
The witches play other games
In this or that
Perhaps very distant place
Meeting their companions in
A riot of banquets and dances
Feasting and philandering
Indulging in leaping orgies to
Ensure the fertility of the fields
Come with me and
The witches to the dance
Come in spirit to the parade
Come and join the nuptials
Where we will eat sweets
Sport dishonestly dance
Feast love dissipating
In the center of the world
Hearing all the music
That can possibly be heard
A Leak In The Safe 