Back in January I posted a piece about my mother, Venom and Velocity. I wrote about her fascination with tornadoes and what seemed to be her uncanny ability to attract animals, including snakes, and in the most unlikely places. That got me thinking about my 8th great grandmother, Susannah North Martin, who was three times accused of witchcraft between 1669-1692. She was finally found guilty and sentenced to hang on July 19, 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. I can’t help but think whether my mother, Susannah’s 7th great granddaughter, would have also been suspected of witchcraft during that time because of her ability to talk with the animals. At any rate, I’ve been working on this poem, truly a work-in-progress at this point, but thought I’d share it with you here.
Susannah wasn’t the only person delivered to the gallows on that day—Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Wildes were also hanged.
Wonders of the Invisible World “Most impudent, scurrilous, and wicked Wonder of the Invisible World” Susannah’s named as children gnash and fit bewitched for show before her. Yet no familiars float nor hungry ghosts invade their skin despite their deceitful shenanigans. “Explore my flesh for what it’s worth, no witch’s teat concealed in freckle or on mole you’ll find.” While Mather’s pen scabs Salem’s plot; in defense Susannah speaks. “My thoughts are my own, this virtuous and holy life, my only sin— not guilty,” her only plea. “Guilty!” came back loud and clear and off to jail Susannah went until the Nineteenth of July, when Good, Howe, Martin, Nurse and Wildes to Proctor’s Ledge were led and noosed until they hung there dead. Then tossed below where gallows stand into a gaping stone crevasse, no soil to blanket jutting limbs, no words of comfort, no amens, no closing hymns or prayers for these so loathed, yet held no sin, these most impudent, scurrilous, and wicked Wonders of the Invisible World.
Photo credit: The Witch No. 1, Library of Congress