“Janine Vega has the capacity to channel the intuition of children down to be states of death, Heil & the devil. If my child attends her classes, well sue.”
• excerpt from a parent’s letter to a local school

WITCHCRAFT
Wish you hadn’t said that, about
opening channels inside kids,
as though I were drilling down
into their ears. Wish you hadn’t
mistaken intuitive power for
the devil.
I saw a devil once, he was a
closed face, like a fist, a concrete
wall thrown up against understanding.
The Bodhisattvas say, Until
every one’s free, no one is free.
Heap up the wood for the next fire
and I’ll dance around it, like the
witches on May Day
Call it Beltana, call it Aks aya trt iya,
call it Mary’s Month or Buddha’s Birthday
any name I’ll be there with the fire
Roaring
pyramid-shaped
and watch its mirror image in my heart.
Fire burns and doesn’t burn.
Where’s my broomstick?
Trust me.
— Janine Pommy Vega (1992) via www.artsjournal.com.