You look sad, Auntie. We’re shadows, azure-

eyed, made from lust and stardust and despise

 

blood and afterbirth. Fools fear our power

to peel off our pelts. Fools fear change, disguise,

 

the way floods deform and do not deform

dry earth. But, Auntie, what use are nightmares

 

if you can wake up? Why try to transform

when we can slaughter? We don’t need more snares

 

Fools keep slipping free from. Call Onibaba.

She’s a friend. She has farseeing vision

 

and short cruel knives. Fools call her, “Hag with Tusks

and Fangs Chitter-Chatting in her Vulva.”

 

Fools fear her carnage; her love of carrion;

how she sucks both down to their very husks.

][][

Notes:

In Japanese folklore Onibaba is a female demon.