Grandmother told stories.
With tips of her fingers,
she imitated
ant, spider, inchworm
climbing our arms
until we could name
the lives upon us.
On summer afternoons
when settled round the picnic table
in the shade of the swing oak
she'd narrate us safely into woods
under the moon
where her voice would prod and hiss us up trees.
These, she'd say, are the dark pines where the polecats play.
We'd imagine them paused
claws in bark,
a deeper blur blow as they hunted for meat.
Know to stay away from them,
grandmother would say
they are witchy
keen to make mischief
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Some people say that they're seen as a symbol of an upcoming productive and fruitful period in life.
Gale (Ancient Greek: Γαλῆ, romanized: Galê, lit. 'weasel, marten' pronounced [galɛ̌ː]) is a minor character in Greek mythology. She was a very skillful witch.
Mythology
According to Aelian's On the Characteristics of Animals, Gale was a talented witch who dealt in herbs and potions. But she was extremely lascivious, and had abnormal sexual desires. For this Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, turned her into a small, "evil" (in the words of Aelian) animal bearing her name, gale (a land-marten or polecat).[1]
Thus the animal became one of the most commonly associated ones with Hecate. Martens/weasels were thought to have magical potency in ancient Greece, though not necessarily of the beneficial kind.[2]
Gale's name shares an etymology with that of Galanthis, another mortal woman who was turned into a weasel at the hands of an angered goddess.[2]
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