Blackbirdan online journal of literature and the artsFall 2020  Vol. 19 No. 2
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back SUSAN RICH

What I Learned from Bewitched

A girl could have a boy’s name and still be beautiful.
Sometimes exchanges between husband and wife

would be boring—all pot roast and brisket.

Yet, a twitch of the nose and clean dishes
could appear like a universe rewilding—

but what good was traditional magic

if Sam stayed with what’s-his-name?
How could anyone love a man

the opposite of handsome, only begrudgingly kind?

What if the network had written in a new lover?
If together the two women had cleansed the neighborhood

of bigotry and crime? I studied Bewitched as my mother bleached

the kitchen sink, let down hems from hand-me-down coats.
I studied alchemy, parsed out which broomstick to choose.

Abracadabra survival, abracadabra something-something new—  


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