“There are love dogs
no one knows the names
of” — Jalal al-Din Rumi

Can you read saffron? Can you make sex charms?
Do you know the name of night rain? Glamor
clamors at my backdoor. A shadow swarms
against the glass. Go and find me ginger
root and hemlock, mandrake and Hecate’s bane,
yarrow and Balm of Gilead. I’ll teach
you what Sycorax taught me; how night rain
needs to be seduced; how shameless the beach
is at low tide, the only spot for sex
magic; how to bind cheating dogs to you
through your own cum. I will teach you that hex,
taboo for my kith and kin, that voodoo
curse to enslave love dogs. The big payback.
A hex from which there is no going back.