Between Chattox and Demdike
no love was lost, “for whom the one favored
the other hated deadly.”
Thomas Potts
the feud began so far in the past
no one remembers why
it didn’t help things
when the Chattox family
stole the oats and linen
from the Demdike clan
but more than just the debt
both families lived on the good graces
of their neighbors begging for bread and milk
and whatever else they needed
both families cast spells of protection
and gathered plants to make healing balms
both families had passed witchcraft down
to their children and their children’s children
and until the pins and the peddler the rest of Pendle
let them be unless someone needed a spell
both women were in their eighties and blind
both sent to Lancaster Prison charged with witchcraft
