Getting into a peck 'o trouble

Stumbling upon a sestude at The Pitt Rivers Museum

Wicked, lascivious, witch! They cried, as they chased me through Oxford’s cobbled streets.

I was barefoot and naked, save for moonlight's robes. Eventually, at midnight, I was trapped. Squeezed into this bottle.

Waiting within my silvered and voluptuous cage, I dream of being free. My anger is bright and fierce.

When I get out, there'll be more than a peck 'o trouble.

I wrote this sestude in 2013 when I was on a Dark Angels Master Class at Merton College, Oxford. The sestude is a form of writing created by the writers’ organisation, 26. It can be in any form or genre, but must be precisely 62 words: 26 reversed.

As part of the Master Class, we visited The Pitt Rivers Museum (one of my fave museums of all time) where we were invited to explore the exhibits. I discovered this tiny silvered bottle, small enough to fit perfectly within the palm of any brave hand that dares touch it. The label attached to it reads:

Silvered & stoppered bottle,
said to contain a witch.
Obtained about 1915 from
an old lady living in a
village near Hove, Sussex.
She remarked “And they do say
there be a witch in it, and if
you let un out there’ll be a
peck o’ trouble.”
Pres. by Miss M.A. Murray, 1926