Brazen Baba Yaga
Brazen Baba Yaga — madly racing!
Whirling through the night in hellish glee,
Feet within her levitating mortar,
Pestle raised in animosity!
Under blackened skies, with teeth protruding,
Screams — declaring hate unto the night!
Villagers and townsfolk running frightened,
Petrified and fearful at the sight.
Owls upon the branches wildly hooting,
Slavic forests darksome cold with frost,
Madness — her companion, never leaving,
A mind in tumult terminally tossed!
Complex is her mystical location;
Beyond the thrice-nine land is where she dwells,
In the hellscape pass of thrice-ten kingdom,
Wielding sorcery in lightless hells…
Neverending passages of alder,
Douglas firs and red madrones and ash;
Trees in labyrinthine darkness growing,
Guarding her abode and treasure stash.
A precious mirror — magical, enchanted;
Changing into lakes, just as she wills,
Handkerchiefs becoming raging rivers!
A fearful witch, of devastating skills.
The horse within her stable, like a dragon,
Fire breathing and prodigious strong,
Galloping through forests black as midnight,
The storming wind — a howling, bitter throng.
Geese with blackened plumage as her minions,
Sent to snag the children straying past,
Lost within the sprawling forest chasms—
Birch and cottonwood in thickets vast…
Baba Yaga, cruel in her behaviour,
Children cooked, once captured by her geese,
Languishing within her oven furnace,
Burned to death and screaming for release.
A meal to slake my sordid, rabid hunger!
Delectable, their young and precious flesh!
Sinewey and tasty thick with juices!
—my sacrifice to slake the devil, fresh!
Bones arrayed in ghastly picket fences!
Pegging out my ghoulish property,
Propped on walking chicken legs — enchanted,
As mobile as the reindeer roaming free!
But when it’s here, I trust the screaming Leshy,
A guardian who fends away the foe—
Any goodsome character or hero,
Any passing traveller in the snow.
Also, like a moat, a flaming river—
Running through the woods, in blazing streams,
All my precious puissance is protected,
By these flaring, pyrotechnic gleams!
Any maiden marked by beauty — hateful!
I will push her down the waterfall!
Snag her in my traps, to bite her ankles,
Cast her in a mind-perplexing pall!
Jealous is my heart against a rival!
Loveliness — a threat unto my mind,
Locks of gold in overflowing lustre?
I will curse you with a fate unkind!
Otherwise, my conscience is protected—
Satan knows me as his prophetess,
Greeting me below the pallid moonlight,
Gleeful as I wantonly undress!
Otherwise, my cats and wolves, they keep me!
Familiars that roam these occult deeps,
The cat — she rides aside me as I travel,
The wolves in watch as this crone’s body sleeps.
My firebird is like a flying candle,
Feathers bright, a luminescent coat,
A veritable lantern in the bleakness,
Through these woods and forest vales remote.
The Kikimora does not have a body,
In the freezing winter air she dwells,
Calling through the darkness like a banshee,
Assisting me prepare my wanton spells!
Sirin, yes, and Alkonost they know me,
Women-birds that roam these Russian glades,
Sirin marked by endless lamentation,
Alkonost in happy escapades.
Yin and Yang — these opposites entwining,
Sirin cursed and Alkonost so gay,
Sirin black as bile coughed from a demon,
Alkonost as joyful as the day!
I’m a witch of fearsome reputation!
Cross me and I’ll kill you in cold blood,
Mock me? I will drown you in the river,
Your flailing body helpless in the flood!
Vlad, the cruel impaler, is my hero,
I will deal with you in callous style!
Picketing your head within my garden,
If you want to test my anger vile!
Death does not arouse my trepidation,
I will look beyond with second sight!
Fathoming the dead, as though a family,
Every ghost is but a helpless wight.
Peeling back the veil — I see forever,
Looking through the glass with wisdom keen,
Braving worlds beyond with flaring gusto,
Into futures occult and unseen…
AD Lovkis, 06/08/25
adamdaniel 