Large Fierce Mammal

The Burning Times

By LFM

It was a simpler, darker age,
An age of Ox and plough,
When doughty farmers, iron thewed
Wrought life from earth and bough.

But woe is me, it came to pass
That clergy came to roost,
And serving up “the word of God”
An awful thing was loosed.

“The devil walks among us!”
Rose up the hue and cry,
“Let those who tread the olden ways
“Be rooted out to die!”

“A witch must burn to cleanse her soul,
“And every goodly man
“Shall join and bring our quarry down
“As quickly as he can.”

Oh fellow pilgrim, years it was
That neighbour turned on friend,
And any who refused to play
Found torture to their end.

Some who died were men, ’tis true,
But those who suffered most
Were those of gender feminine,
Accused as Satan’s host.

And as the witch hunt grew it lent
Itself to meaner things.
The kind that comes when axes grind
And evil that it brings.

The kind that makes a vengeful fool
Rejected by the ladies
Conspire to teach his lesson by
Condemning them to Hades.

And such was all too oft the case,
For comely lasses worse,
But brains and spirit most of all
Brought down the Church’s curse.

The rules of court were not the same
As known by such as I,
And people could be flogged or killed
By unsupported lie.

Ending sadly, as I’ve said
My tale quotes an accuser
Whose throat would yawn beneath my blade,
The mis’rable abuser.

He sought to mate above his place,
She rejected it as fated,
And so the one he lusted for
Became the one he hated.

His testimony seemed a thing
So simple to pronounce,
His inner manly man prepared
This woman to denounce.

And so he did, and she did die
But he is also dead,
Removed from life by his own hand,
His court words in his head.

“The beauteous witch did cast her spell
“And to Satan gave my cow,
“She seeks to turn me into stone,
“I feel it starting NOW!”