Cauldrons leave you maudlin?
Can’t handle coal or candle?
Is there perhaps, no craft in your drafts?
On tenterhooks from bulky books?
Got no notions of potions, perplexed by a hex?
In pains from tisanes, simples just too complex?
Whether extract, elixir, infusion or tipple,
tonic or essence or tincture or ripple.
She fixes your mixes, she’ll simmer and stew,
she’ll bubble your troubles away in her brews.
Do pesky beaus bother? Do grey hairs persist?
A cure for ague that you wish to resist?
Is it romance you seek, is it fortune you crave?
Her prowess is awesome, her customers rave.
Her prices are steep, but your problems she’ll heed
with skill and discretion – results guaranteed.
(Excerpt from The Apothecary Witch, by A.E.)