Classic mum-in-law she was, Ma Grendl:

mood scorpio, wirehaired, snagged in the trap

of always having been a loving much-

beloved mum, no more—suddenly stuck

 

on the wrong side of the story: Beast.

Creeping through Hero’s brackish fits & tweets,

she’s damp of neck, bent of knee, tarsals

swollen thick as trees. The They all cheered

 

when bold boy knight raised golden mead

in the mouldering hall:  Death to the green-

clawed she-fiend, brine wolf, long of tooth

ragged hag, may she fall!  Defeat—

 

she who by her own kind, in her own time,

was called mama, milady, ma’am. Goddamn.

 

(Editors’ Note: “Sonnet for the Aglæcwif” is read by Joy Piedmont on  the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, 41A.)

© 2021 Minal Hajratwala