Daily Routine

The life and times of a young, contemporary witch

Mahaila Smith (any pronouns) is a young, enby femme writer, living and working on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg in Ottawa, Ontario. They are one of the co-editors for The Sprawl Mag (thesprawlmag.ca). They like learning theory and writing spec poetry. Their debut chapbook, Claw Machine, was published by Anstruther Press in 2020. You can find more of their work on their website: mahailasmith.ca

---

She draws the orbits of the solar system
in her lined notebook, with glittery, silver gel pen. 
She finds talismans among the lake stones:
A statue’s marble finger, straight and pointed, 
a sherd of terracotta pottery, decades old. 

She pages through a glossy magazine
of spells and potions. She marks a star
beside the ones she’d like to try later. 

She makes a cup of lavender tea 
and whispers conversations to the plants
and bugs and rodents living in her veggie patch. 

Before bed, she writes down what they said
and sips the potion she’s made to ward off headaches. 
She takes it outside to wait for the night’s meteor shower. 
She falls asleep in her rowboat, under a heavy duvet. 

---