HAG-HOLLERIN’ TIME

Black Julius peered out from the galley fly;

Behind Jim Island, lying long and dim;

An infra owl-light tinged the twilight sky

As if a bonfire burned for cherubim.

Dark orange flames came leering through the pines,

And then the moon's face, struggling with a sneeze,

Along the flat horizon's level lines

Her nostrils fingered with palmetto trees.

Her platinum wand made water wrinkles buckle;

Old Julius gave appreciative chuckle;

“It's jes about hag-hollerin’ time,” he said.

I watched the globous buckeyes in his head

Peer back along the bloody moon-wash dim

To see the fish-tailed water-witches swim.