Don’t ask me why I did it
Of course it was her who prodded me
Leave them in the woods
They’ll survive
More than they would with us
We’ll all starve to death together
Hansel, my young boy
Full of vigor even in hunger
Gretel, my joy, daddy’s little girl
I did what I thought was best
Yet I too was hungry
Selfish
I left them behind
My eternal shame
We ate no better with them gone
There was no food to be had
Among the living or the dead
She turned on me, berated, hated
Worthless, lazy, no good
This and worse she said
I could contradict none of her words
Words lay hollow
Echoes of my children’s footsteps in the woods
Silent across the grass, loud in my head
Starvation whistled in the street
I welcomed its shrill tune
Though it took her instead
Then the harvest came
Both in bread and in bred
My children came home
With silver and gold
Pearls and gems
Stolen from some fantastical tale
That I dared not contradict or investigate
Selfish then and now
I dare not give them up again by asking how
Frugal am I
In love and loot
My heart I keep behind lock and key
Given only to my children
Penance for an eternal debt to be paid
Coin, I know too deeply,
How quickly it can go
So we live within our means
Though stolen or borrowed sowed
And if by chance some kindred to a witch
May come to call
I will gladly defend them to the death
That neither should fall
For Hansel and Gretel
My girl and boy
Sweet children mine
Shall never again be left behind.
This is for a dVerse prompt: Today we’re going to give secondary characters a voice. Choose a character from a well-known story, myth, book, fairy tale, movie, play, or even song who is not the lead character. … write a poem from [their] perspective. I hope you enjoy!😊
This is the father’s perspective from the Brothers Grimm fable ‘Hansel and Gretel’.
