“Women who wear black lead colorful lives.” — Neiman Marcus

She looks good in black, 

or maybe

she was a witch in another life.

Not the one who vexed Dorothy, nor the one who saved her,

nor the kind who poisoned pretty princesses,

nor ate babies, 

but the kind who delivered them, 

who kept mothers from bleeding out 

their lives with the after birth, 

who knew the herbs and plants and trees that save 

neighbors from fever and plague,

whose ability to ease pain, to cure, 

so frightened men of small minds and great power

they cowered from her touch and lit a fire, 

cauterized her healer’s heart and she, 

being a witch, 

did not die but returned to wear her charred

remains as proud drapery, 

or maybe 

she just looks good in black.