A Witch's Education

With lyrical malevolence Serafina Bersonsage chronicles the evolution and dissolution of a literary critic-cum-storybook villain. Frustrated with the Midwest the titular witch flees a small town for the even smaller world of academia where she develops a crush on a dead poet and has a date in a psych ward and renames herself at a rest stop Starbucks before venturing deep into the woods.These poems pair well with poisoned apples and a full-bodied red.SMALL TOWN WITCHWell before I cast a spell they made a witch of me an only child in a school of sisters a wannabe Catholic turned heretic a lonely prodigy so my teacher said staring down my shirt.I was a witch every Halloween but a vampire in first grade on a random bored Tuesday when I started that particular rumor and caused a panic. Two children were inconsolable; the principal furious. My mother just poured more wine.I started learning languages -- serpiente -- and was curious about Communion and couldnt wait to taste -- Mela melas. My mother taught me early about palindromes in this our Salem where the schoolyard held my gallows where I flew so that I would not swing.