The Coven

It’s Tuesday,

and we’re skipping fourth period

to stuff sage

into mason jars.

When I say,

I am so tired of boys going

“I’ll kill him,”

because they never follow through,

Sadie tips her head back,

and her laughter is like glass

and gravel

grinding into the soft give

of my throat.

Well, I’m not a boy.

When Josh Miller’s motorbike

careens into the quarry

the dusk before football tryouts,

the school is flooded

with silence.

Sadie gets detention

for flouncing down the A-wing,

all teeth,

a string of soot-blackened sage

clenched in one fist.

***

Emma Sloan is a published poet, journalist, and copywriter. Her works have been featured in publications such as, but not limited to, the Huffington Post, LEVITATE Magazine, Enizagam Literary Journal, and The Good Men Project. She currently resides on the west coast of Canada.