The poem opens like an alarm: "Do something. / They are everywhere." The title, "Witch Hunt," suggests the speaker is mimicking a frightened crowd, but what follows is a gallery of older women who are anything but sinister. Louise sings a hymn while washing at a sink, unembarrassed by her body. Elizabeth chooses to die at home rather than in a nursing home. Three friends trade dirty jokes, and Bea walks alone at dawn looking for birds and fossils. Susan pulls nettles and kills chickens, and Ann shares her stool with younger people.
These women are "witches" only because they are independent, unashamed, and hard to control. The speaker seems to admire them, and the joke of the opening is that the real "threat" is their freedom. The mood is warm, wry, and affectionate, with a quiet defiance underneath. By naming each woman, the poem treats them as individuals, not a stereotype of old age.