Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel

Slaps of canned frosting,
Smeared white,
Against graham cracker brown.
Sticky fingers lick the edges,
Smudge the nose.
Crumbs shattering
Against an Umpqua milk carton.
(Forests meeting river,
a cottage stacked behind
Lodge pole pine and Douglas fir.)

Tears run rivers
Through candy muck,
Staining a child’s face.
Starving in a forest
Of sugar cane.
(A Hunger game)

The house the child built:
4 squares of graham,
pyramid roof,
(a Nile of blue ribbon icing.)]
chalky globs cementing striped candies,
licorice strings (red and black)
M and m’s, life savors, confetti dots…
timbering in its lopsidedness,
a house built upon sugar crystals.

II.
Hansel and Gretel
On a begging path,
Scattering the crumbs of their lives,
To find a way back home.
(crumbs on forest floors,
feed the hunger, lose the path
stir cravings of gluttony
in evil birds with metallic feathers,
crashing in the quiet wind, trapped in branches of dead-
People’s limbs hung up to dry,)

Their eyes in wonder of gingerbread house,
Lost in woods.
A home, sweet taste,
Breaking off edges to nibble.
Flypaper to attract-
Blue bottles, twitching in death,
Swinging gallows like from the ceiling.

III.

But there are witches in Gingerbread Houses,
Children.
They live in walls,
Trick your eyes with gummy worms,
Crawling through pricky holes.

Their hair, searing strands,
Writhing snake like tangles,
Caressing to stone,
With a touch of venom,
A pearl upon a fang,
burning misery
upon faces of children.
They spread their soot,
Corner to peak,
With whispery breath of mordant bile,
Dribbles down their pointy chins.

Don’t look up my child,
Nor sideways to dusky corners.
Wedge the door!
One foot behind the other.
Scamper to the stair of glossy cane,
Fudge through toffee stones,
AND
Run, run, run!

IV.

One child to another-
Eyes wink shut in sleep-
Winkem, Blinkem, Nod
of a Nightmare.

And I don’t know how to end
this and give you back your dreams.

There are monsters out there.
Come close!
I’ll hold you tight.
Teach you the weapons to use:


“You can READ your way out of anything”

“Write your way to comfort.”

“The sums you add
will multiply your days of gladness.”


Come listen to my story…