A Walk in the Woods

In a small, white-washed cottage, surrounded by trees,

Lay two gold-haired children, sunk to their knees.

Scrubbing the floor, work their stepmother refused,

Son and daughter not loved, instead only used.  

Hansel and Gretel lived lives of such bore,

There was no money for toys, no coin for the store.

Hansel stacked stones in all the time he had free

And a little cloth doll was Gretel’s only form of glee

Food was scare, in the home of Hansel and Gretel,

Their supper consisted of bread and thin soup from the kettle,

But it wasn’t until the day their last hen failed to lay

That the two tykes knew they would eventually pay.

And then the day came, where there was no food,

And their mother and father got into a mood.

With a parcel of bread and a swift push from their mother,

The two ventured out, sister and brother,

Into the woods, where they were told to live,

With two slices of bread and nothing much to give.

But Hansel was smart and left stones as a trail,

And sooner than later they were home without fail,

But bright in the morning like clockwork they were

Pushed back out of the house into the cold morning brr.

With so few stones and just two slices of bread,

Their trail was gone, and the children filled with dread.

They had nothing to eat and nowhere to go,

What would they do, who would they know?

A day passed of laborious walking,

Gretel picked flowers, Hansel was stalking.

Morale was low and hunger was gnawing,

That is until they caught site of a licorice awning.

This is where the story is not what it seems

For many of us are told that they ate to the seams

Then ventured on into the grasps of a witch

And escaped getting eaten with little but a hitch.

But this was not true for the girl and the boy ,

For the candy-laden house was nothing more than a toy

Of their starving minds yearning for chocolates and creams

And other sweets to quench their hungry dreams.

The closer they walked, towards the sweet-covered house,

Their hopes began to shrink as small as a mouse,

For the cottage once sewn in candy, front to back,

Was really nothing more than an old wooden shack.

So with nowhere to go, and night drawing near,

The two weathered children knew they had to sleep here.

Gretel, the one who was slightly more brave,

Crept up to the stoop and entered the cave.

The crackling of a warm fire consumed Hansel and Gretel as they entered the gaunt house,

The smell of a rich stew, perfected from years of concoction wafted through the entrance of the cottage,

The large billowing laugh of a bearded old man and the swift embrace from a warm, sweet-smelling woman melted the children into a hazy reality that seemed too good to be true.

It was courage and good fortune that saved their life,

For Hansel and Gretel had come upon the humble home of an old hunter and his wife,

The two had lived for years in that home in the wood,

Happy but lonely, they lived as they could.

And upon seeing the children, skinny and cold,

The husband and wife gave them food and consoled

Their two broods before laying them down for bed,

With a warm, feather pillow and a candle at their head.

Their stepmother and father became nothing more

Once the two children stepped through the old, rickety door.

They formed a new family with the hunter and his wife,

A happy, fulfilling, and welcoming life.

As time wore on, Gretel’s gold hair grew long,

And Hansel himself became tall and strong,

Nights were warm, filled with good food and laughter

And so, as it is said, they lived happily ever after.