As I read through testimonies from the Salem witch trials, I couldn’t get over how one accusation against Brigget Bishop was the fact that she wanted to dye small pieces of lace. (Apparently, this implied she was making poppet dolls.) Another was that she expelled all apples from someone’s orchard, then flew away with the devil.
When I researched a little more about red dye, I learned about carmine and where it comes from: the female cochineal bug, who doesn’t ever get to fly away.
Anyway, here’s my poem laced with reds.
