The Nine

The first she was cursed
Marked at her birth
A half moon hung under one eye
She was caught out at night
Naked in moonlight
We didn’t let her see another sunrise

The second was reckoned
Caught teaching lessons
Science and heresy
She tried to defend her dark acumen
But we all know what she believed

We cry
For the nine
But everybody here knows why they died

The third was unpure
And sadly couldn’t be cured
She slept out with the goats in the stables
And when her madness came
She had to be put in chains
We prayed to save her soul but weren’t able

The fourth was a martyr, a true fire starter
Defended the other three
And that showed her guilt
Revealed her true ilk
Her pyre burned to set us free

We cry
For the nine
But everybody here knows why they died

The fifth lived in filth
In the holler up in the hills
She raised beasts too foul for slaughter
Rabid and possessed
Suckled at her own breast
Some say she even fed them her daughters

The sixth she was sick, her legs bent and cricked
A burden in every sense
She begged at the end
But had not one friend
That spoke for her innocence

We cry
For the nine
But everybody here knows why they died

The seventh wasn’t unpleasant
Church going and so repentant
We all believed she was a pious one
But with whispers down the pews
She knew she would be accused
She swallowed all her secrets with a long gun

The eighth was a wraith
Thin as a snake
She took her meals own her own
But we all felt her stalking
A dead woman walking
Til the river sunk her like a stone

We cry
For the nine
But everybody here knows why they died

And now with regret
We’re forced to admit
This sickness still hasn’t passed
Lord give us power
In this fragile hour
May the ninth woman be our last

We cry for the nine
But everybody here condemned them to die