Hexes in poetry represent the quiet, personal violence of resentment made manifest. They appear in folk and domestic verse as curses woven into quilts, whispered at thresholds—where harm is not grand, but intimate, and the witch’s power lies in the mundane.

Hex is a curse or magical spell cast through objects, words, or gestures—often simple but potent, like a nail in a tree or a spoken rhyme. Unlike elaborate spells, hexes are folk magic: accessible, immediate, and tied to daily life. In poetry, hexes represent the power of the mundane turned sinister—the broom left upside down, the salt spilled. Poets use them to explore micro-aggressions, inherited trauma, or the quiet violence of domestic spaces.