The Cyclone Incantation by Samuel Budge
CBC Books | | Posted: May 30, 2019 11:21 AM | Last Updated: May 30, 2019
2019 finalist: Grade 7 to 9 category
Samuel Budge is a finalist of the 2019 Shakespeare Selfie Student Writing Challenge. This annual writing competition challenges students to write a soliloquy or monologue in the voice of a Shakespearean character based on a prominent news, pop culture or current affairs event from the last year (April 2018 to April 2019).
Budge, who attends Académie de la Capitale in Ottawa, Ont., wrote about the Ottawa/Gatineau tornados from the perspective of Macbeth's First Witch.
Thrice the landlord's hound hath bark'd.
Thrice thirteen hath the clock chimed.
By mold and slime! Tis time! Tis Time!
In goes a tooth of a crocodile!
In goes bat's brain, so slick and vile.
In goes the toy of a small child.
Discarded and forgotten out in the wild.
The blood of things that time forgot.
Must boil and melt in our iron pot!
In goes bat's brain, so slick and vile.
In goes the toy of a small child.
Discarded and forgotten out in the wild.
The blood of things that time forgot.
Must boil and melt in our iron pot!
Tiger's fur and flesh of shrew.
They will bake in our cursed brew!
Horse's hoof, serpent's scales,
Ferret bones, and kitten tails!
The pointy fin from a graceful fish
Rare poison fit for a monarch's dish!
The items fill our magic broth,
As it begins to boil then to froth!
They will bake in our cursed brew!
Horse's hoof, serpent's scales,
Ferret bones, and kitten tails!
The pointy fin from a graceful fish
Rare poison fit for a monarch's dish!
The items fill our magic broth,
As it begins to boil then to froth!
"Double Double Toil and Trouble!
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
Rabbit's foot, raven's plume
The femur of a man who met his doom.
Skin of wombat, gill of shark,
A blind fish, living life in the dark.
The beak of an eagle, lord of the skies.
Hecate commands the wind to rise!
Tortoise shell and corpse flower.
Conjure a tempest of mighty power!
A giant condor's smooth-shelled eggs.
The jar of poison's toxic dregs.
A mole from the darkest underground tunnel.
Wind begin to spiral and funnel!
The femur of a man who met his doom.
Skin of wombat, gill of shark,
A blind fish, living life in the dark.
The beak of an eagle, lord of the skies.
Hecate commands the wind to rise!
Tortoise shell and corpse flower.
Conjure a tempest of mighty power!
A giant condor's smooth-shelled eggs.
The jar of poison's toxic dregs.
A mole from the darkest underground tunnel.
Wind begin to spiral and funnel!
"Double Double Toil and Trouble!
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
A scale from a dragon's armoured hide.
An item from a man who died.
A tattered vest so old and nitty.
The whirlwind will ravage the fine city!
The scalp of a mighty jungle ape.
Drops of juice squeezed from a single grape.
An injured soldier's shoulder pauldron.
All of these enter our magic cauldron!
Our ingredients begin to fuse and assemble!
This tempest will make Beelzebub tremble!
Turbulence growing in the air!
"Fair is foul and foul is fair!"
An item from a man who died.
A tattered vest so old and nitty.
The whirlwind will ravage the fine city!
The scalp of a mighty jungle ape.
Drops of juice squeezed from a single grape.
An injured soldier's shoulder pauldron.
All of these enter our magic cauldron!
Our ingredients begin to fuse and assemble!
This tempest will make Beelzebub tremble!
Turbulence growing in the air!
"Fair is foul and foul is fair!"
"Double Double Toil and Trouble!
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble!"
Swirling and floating above the town,
The six whirlwinds each touch down!
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes!"
The six whirlwinds each touch down!
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes!"