Poem: "The Disappointing Daughter"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from rhodielady_47 and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "talking dog" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia series. It follows "The Unretired Witch" so read that first for best results.


"The Disappointing Daughter"


Elitsa had grown up in
a well-known witch family,
but she only had small magics
at her command, and that
made her a disappointment.

She could speak with animals --
and sometimes plants, but it was
harder -- and that was about it.

She liked people and was
pretty good at solving problems,
but she couldn't do it with spells.

Still, Elitsa was fascinated by
the porcupine familiar who visited
with a magic-sensing crystal and
suggested that she might make
a good village witch with training.

So she packed up her things
and Dover the talking dog, then
they headed off down the road.

Tessa, who was not as retired
as she wanted to be, had already
hung up a sign reading Witch School.

Elitsa winced at the implied expectations,
but Dover said, "Just knock on the door.
If you don't like it here, then we can
always go somewhere else instead."

That made sense, so she knocked,
and the door opened to reveal the witch.

"I'm Elitsa and this is Dover," said the girl.
"I have a little magic; I'm here to learn."

"Welcome," said Tessa. "Come into
the garden and we'll see what kind
of magical talents you have -- there's
plenty of work here for everyone."

Curious, Elitsa ventured into
the garden and looked around.

There was a long-haired boy
making some sort of soap,
and a girl cutting her skirts
to turn them into trousers.

Several other young people
were pulling weeds or watering
the long raised beds of herbs.

"Elitsa, do you know what you're
good at, or do you need some time
to explore options?" said Tessa.

"I can talk with animals and
sometimes plants, but I can't
do any powerful witchcraft
like spells," said Elitsa.
"Dover helps a little too."

"Oh, excellent," said Tessa.
"We can certainly use someone
to help figure out what the plants
need to be healthy. Also if you
could translate death threats
to all the critters trying to eat
the garden, that would be great."

"I can do those things," said Elitsa,
and headed toward the tree that
had a squirrel nest in its branches.

"I can dig things up," Dover offered,
and the weeding team eagerly
beckoned for him to join them.

Maybe this would work out after all.

Comments

[gs_silva]

This is so cute! Very cozy. I don't think I've read cozy poetry in a long time. It's refreshing.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you liked this. :D

I write a fair amount of cozy poetry. There's a lot in Quixotic Ideas and Fiorenza the Wisewoman, among other series. If you like cozies, you can prompt for that tone in any prompt call. Next up will be the October crowdfunding Creative Jam running Saturday 18-Sunday 19 on "Knowledge vs. Ignorance." That pretty much begs for cozy academia.

If you like cozy fiction, I highly recommend dialecticdreamer. Her Feathering the Nest prompt call is always fluff and comfort; Magpie Monday has variable themes but cozy is pretty much always welcome.

[mama_kestrel]

Thank you for a much needed smile.

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you enjoyed this.

[siliconshaman]

Magic isn't all grand spells and shaking the pillars of heaven, sometimes it's about keeping the critters out of the veggie garden.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well said. She'll make a good hedgewitch.

Needed but overlooked

[dialecticdreamer]

Too many people fall into the same category, magic or no magic. To be able to protect the garden, including the herbs and medicinals, is incredibly valuable.

Forget flashy, I'll take practical and reliable small boosts that add up to a much better quality of life every day over a single showy bit of magic.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Too many people fall into the same category, magic or no magic. <<

Sadly so.

>>To be able to protect the garden, including the herbs and medicinals, is incredibly valuable.<<

:D I've done it. For a while the Japanese beetles would swarm in and skeletonize whole plants. Drove me nuts, and they're invasive, so nothing wanted to eat them. I spent some serious time saying, "Dear insectivores, I swear aver and affirm that these Japanese beetles are insects and therefore your food." Took some time, but then suddenly I had swarms of very pretty new wasps all over my garlic chives. I looked them up, and they're parasitic wasps that lay their eggs on the larvae of scarab beetles. A few years later, I have far fewer Japanese beetles and also junebugs. Problem mostly solved. \o/

>>Forget flashy, I'll take practical and reliable small boosts that add up to a much better quality of life every day over a single showy bit of magic.<<

Yeah, I can do bigger things, but I don't need to often. The vast majority of my magic use is small, very very old spells -- do not notice me, come rain, grow plant, stay there, etc. You'd be surprised how many worlds that will work in, if you know how; not many are truly devoid of magic.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[dialecticdreamer]

Doesn't working magic hinge on believing in it?

It's a nice idea to bat around the mental belfry, regardless.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[ysabetwordsmith]

Some does, some doesn't.

There are types of magic that are created and shaped by a series of steps, kind of like baking a cake, so you have to know how to do that. Most spells and rituals work like this.

There are types of magic that exist in objects, plants, parts of the world; they just do their thing whether humans believe in it or not. Holey stones and crystals are examples.

Some things can be be used in different ways, like Tarot cards -- you need divination talent to use them magically, but anyone can use them for inspiration or psychological exploration. Some decks are multipurpose, others really have a focus.

There are things like positive affirmations that rely heavily on belief -- in fact, if you disbelieve the statement, it won't work, so you have to find affirmations that don't sound like lies to your mind.

And then there are types of magic where you don't have know, because humans do certain things by instinct, and it's like how a gun will go off if you touch the trigger regardless of whether you understand or intend it. Image magic is an example. If you casually throw away a photo, nothing happens. But if your romantic partner shafted you and you feel intense emotion -- grief, betrayal, rage, heartbreak, whatever -- and you express that by ripping a couple picture in half and then incinerating their image, then you taken a huge amount of energy and given it a target. There is a very real chance for it to go off even in nonbeliever hands. I clean up after this kind of mess repeatedly in college.

Not to mention the time a folklore professor got his students, in class, to read invocations from several different deities who all hated each other. I managed to send them packing, but it scared the students, offended the deities, and pissed me off. I tore his ears off after class. Fucking idiot. Nobody knew what they were doing but that didn't stop it from working.

A lot of belief just comes down to experience. People who haven't encountered mystical or spiritual things tend not to believe in them, which is fine. Sensible even. But for some other folks it's just empirical practice. They've experienced it, they know what works for them.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[dialecticdreamer]

So this is why the Potterverse fandom has split into "magic is a science" and "magic tells the laws of physics to sit down and shut up," with very little middle ground!

Re: Needed but overlooked

[ysabetwordsmith]

Potterverse is vague on a lot of important things, but well, the viewpoint character is a young boy in a shitty situation. I lean toward science because magic is a thing that can be taught and learned, even though not everyone can do it, and it has a lot of specific rules about how things work. Potions is akin to chemistry, or more precisely its antecedent alchemy; you mix things together and get new things that have useful effects. Most of the rest is a manipulation of physics, or quantum physics.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[dialecticdreamer]

I lean hard on logic and scientific method, but the point was that the two camps are raging at each other, and each determined to "win" the argument that theirs is the One True Vision from JKR.

So, the idea of the two styles existing simultaneously but not necessarily coexisting was the point that I was trying to make. I need sleep, apparently. It was clearer in my head.

Re: Needed but overlooked

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't really pay attention to fanwars, they're just dumb. Different interpretations of literature are normal.

>>So, the idea of the two styles existing simultaneously but not necessarily coexisting was the point that I was trying to make. <<

Fair enough.

[greghousesgf]

cute

[kellan_the_tabby]

Could I borrow her negotiate with the van mice? I'm totally fine with them living there as long as they learn to use a litterbox.

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm not sure they'd get along with a cat around.

Re: *laugh*

[kellan_the_tabby]

If the cats cared the TINIEST TINIEST BIT about the van mice many things would be very different. Of course convincing the mice of this is likely to be an uphill battle...