A Spell for Change – Maggie Butt

A Spell for Change

Let night-sweats drench him hourly,
washing him from sodden sheets
onto the bedroom floor, baptising him
in new ways of thinking.

Let him bleed like a cut-throat, then dry
up, drier than a drought-dry riverbed,
alternately flooding and cracking, confounded
into new ways of seeing.

Let him have headaches, mood-swings, weight gain
which bloats him like a barrage balloon;
let him pee a little when he laughs, surprised
into new ways of feeling.

Let his thermostat malfunction wildly,
roasting him like a piglet on a barbeque,
red faced, ripping off jacket and socks, broiled
into new ways of being.

(This spell is most efficacious when repeated in unison, picturing the subject eg Donald Trump.)

Maggie Butt is a journalist and BBC TV documentary producer turned poet. Her fifth collection was Degrees of Twilight (The London Magazine 2015). She teaches Creative Writing at Middlesex University and is a Royal Literary Fund Advisory Fellow. www.maggiebutt.co.uk