The Witch is Crawling Out of the Oven

Tuhinga Auaha... Creative
Written By Anuja Mitra
A cabin in the forest

The Witch is Crawling Out of the Oven

but she’s not here for vengeance.

Actually she’s quite calm.

The famine is over

and her house is blooming again

its predatory colours,

red, pink, blue. 

They’d tried to burn her before.

Now her nerves knew the shock.

The witch is crawling out of the oven

but she’s not resentful.

Really, she’s had time to think.

The boy and his sister were smarter than most

and they were children, whom you couldn’t blame

because they were children.

They will grow to be villagers

with nervous hearts and violent hands

and they will learn

to beat the women they can’t burn,

red,

pink,

blue.

The witch is tidying up her kitchen

and oh, it’s winter again, come in,

stand by the oven, lean in,

we all need somewhere

to keep us warm.

The Witch is Crawling Out of the Oven was first published in Starling, Issue 4, 2017

Anuja Mitra

Inspired by literature, art and the world around her, Anuja the soon to university graduate and published author, helper of Oscen - a creative magazine uplifting marginalised voices - and bookstore adventurer. She can also be found having deep, meaningful conversations with friends and petting her many cats.

I writes about my experience of leaving home and migrating to New Zealand, friends going through hard times, and the to subvert the stereotypical roles that wahine take in fairytales (especially the 'witch' and the 'damsel in distress').

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