Hunger

A Fairy Tale Poem

Hunger brings madness hoarding and greed;

everyone is starving — so the obvious solution

is to get rid of the kids, a boy and a girl eating too much bread — they have got to go,

but they are too smart at first — shiny white pebbles lead them back home no night in the woods;

home for dinner home for scraps

the second attempt though, that’s the winner breadcrumbs don’t last in the woods, breadcrumbs get eaten

by the birds, just as hungry, just as famished, there’s no return —

dark woods, deep woods, hand in hand searching for home — but what is home when

your mother decides to sacrifice you to the wild so she can eat just a bit more,

suddenly home becomes a candy house a dream vision for a little mouse or two —

eating bits and pieces, undoing the structure, nibbling at the foundations

getting caught, being naive

being innocent being kids

getting caught and then put to work, one to clean, and one to fatten up

this lady eats kids — what a concept! — first kids are too hard to feed, now kids are the food

but this is how it happens, forced to think, forced to survive, wanting to stay alive —

the boy eats but doesn’t show it, the witch grabs a bone and doesn’t know it -

somehow she is fooled thinking that’s his finger,

that he is immune to fatness, that he won’t be dinner tonight

the girl gets crafty, as girls often do grace under fire, invention under pressure

the blind witch, the lady of the house, is tired of waiting, she’s hungry too,

every single person in this place is starving, is eating, is wanting to eat, is about to be eaten —

little girl pretends she can’t work the stove — feigns that sweet naivety that got her here,

asks for help — and bam — shoves the old woman in,

brutal, gruesome, freedom the day is saved, somehow now,

intriguingly enough, they are able to get back home to find another witch is dead,

a happy family reunion, they take the candy house,

they take the goods and gold, the wanting is over,

the famine is over, they eat and eat and eat.

Jenny Justice is a poet mom who longs to bring poetry to life in ways that spark empathy, connection, joy, and feeling. She loves writing love poems, climate change awareness poems, poems for kids, and of course, poems about poetry and poets. You can follow her on Medium and at Jenny Justice, Writer. You can follow her poetry at Justice Poetic.