Walking wearily through the wilderness

Distant sounds dancing in peculiarness

Through darkened trees void of rejoice

Came to me what seemed to be a voice.

Curiosity calling me nearer

Per chance to hear these whispers clearer

Through the shadows seeing figures drawn

I didn't realize what I'd stumbled upon.

"Burn the witch, evil must die!"

The forest repeated the crowd's cry

"The needle hath brought forth the stigma

An enchantress of spells and hell's enigma".

I saw them spit on her soft white face

Around her neck a crucifix in place

To remove all her powers of spell

To take with her and burn in hell.

Ropes began cutting the flesh raw

Slicing into her skin like a saw

Down bruised cheeks tender tears rolled

Her bright blue eyes, inconsolable.

Even tighter yet these ropes were pulled

The wicked lady having no-one fooled

In agony she screamed towards a calm sky

"Don't let them kill me, I don't want to die".

Paralyzed now, in secure fashion

The stake would be her restrain

A burning example to all other witches

To forfeit their pernicious practices.

She stared at the crowd, both judge and jury

Enforcing their verdict with fists and fury

Horrified by such an unthinkable ritual

Performed by bonafide Christians, Oh! so spiritual!

"I'm only eighteen", she said in desperate tone

"Why would you call me witch for living alone?

Who should levy such judgments on me?

Damning me to all eternity?”

"Surely not you, my Lord from up above

Who has given us this life we love

Are you not the enraged crowd

That cried out in anger to have him crucified?"

"Quiet!" was commanded, silence did beckon.

"Christ will judge us all I reckon."

The deep voice came from the hooded man

Brandishing the torch like a talisman.

Then with not so much as an inch to contact

The wood to which the flame would contract

Out of stillness blew forth a gentle breeze

Which softly doused the flame in squeeze.

The crowd lay still, somewhat awe-stricken

Their questioning nature beginning to quicken

An act of nature having them puzzled

The fear of one woman leaving them hushed.

And soon the torch once again breathed fire

Set to quench the angry mob's desire

Exercising their misguided sense of right

To see righteousness served on this holy night.

How they longed for burning flesh's stench

To see crumbling to ashes, this comely wench

Who dared to share their thoughts and dreams?

Who dared to spare the life of a human being?

Slowly, painfully the torch descended

To carry forth the anguish, justice intended

But, once again, the wind befriended

The fire whose life it again ended.

The townsfolk grew edgy, drawing on fear

Baffled by a sky, now not so clear

Then the woman began to mumble

Cantos, in a voice quite low and humble.

A cloud of darkness swallowed the sky

As the wind and forest began to cry

The torch was lit once more in a hurry

Before a crowd now panicked, set in worry.

Quickly they ran the flame towards her

Letting it fly across the sky in a blur

This time the fire rested and spread

Consuming the figure from foot to head.

Listening to the blood-curdling screams

The horde looked on, all eyes agleam

In a state of jubilant content

At the climax of a day so aptly spent.

When the cries finally came to a halt

The eerie silence seemed to exalt

The mass in awe, still staring on

At the golden blaze, glowing like dawn.

Then in an instant with a thunderous crash

A mighty explosion with a blinding flash

Engulfed the scene, raging with fire

As to the sky I watched the flames aspire.

Everyone present was consumed

The entire crowd died, God-forsaken

Then the flames slowly withered away

And the darkened sky gave back the day.

The ashes blew in the breeze

Weaving their way throughout the trees

But the forest lay silent and disdained

Only echoes of laughter remained.

I penned this over the last few days..... saw a programme on HISTORY channel on how women were discriminated against and burnt at the stake as witches..

Some nine million women were burned at the stake as witches for being pagans or healers or merely wise or powerful women, with only occasional and timid intervention. I am pained by that holocaust as well.

I believe the term holocaust is the proper term for the witch hunts as many of the victims were literally burnt alive. It should be noted that these events occurred at a time when there was only one city in all of Europe with over a million people, Paris. The events must have been devastating. I do not wish to compare people's pain: an unjust murder is an unjust murder regardless of how many other people are murdered. It should be noted, however, lest we think times have changed, that the efficiency of murder in our own time would seem to dwarf that of early modern Europe. In the early 1970's the Khmer Rouge Government murdered 2-3 million people in the the small nation of Cambodia.

It seems that if we have changed, the change is only in the efficiency with which we conduct our witch hunts. Nothing has changed! All this pseudo progress is but Industrial and economic only.. people's minds haven't changed an iota! Religion teaches us tolerance and not witch hunting! If the latter is what we have learnt from our scriptures then its time to trash the scripture.. as it can not teach anything more to people who are close minded!

Witch hunts happen in India every minute! And we are supposed to be a tolerant nation! anyone raising their voice against injustice is crushed! tribes and communities are wiped out in the name of religion, caste and colour! Political witch hunts! Religious witch hunts! the list is never ending.... God isn't dead! he just got the hell outa our world.

ppfff...