"Modern Day Gretel" Inspired by The Witch in the Woods:

Modern Day Gretel

Like a modern day Gretel,

I stopped to eat the witch’s house.

The woods were dark,

my feet were aching,

and I had cried my eyes dry.

I was desperate

desperate enough to eat a house.


The scraps offered by the witch

were enough to keep me content.

With shelter, food, and companionship—

even bad companionship—

I was better off in the house

than in the woods.


Maybe if the witch

had eaten me earlier,

I wouldn’t have struggled so much,

but this Gretel was ready to live again

to fight for life.

Getting out of the house was hard,

and going back through

the nightmare woods

was harder.

But now I live.


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