No Homecoming - Henri Cole

Hansel and Gretel were picking strawberries
and listening to a bronze cuckoo.
As the forest mist thickened,
Hansel snuggled up to his little sister,
admitting they were lost. They were the children
of a broom maker who drank too much.
They did not understand that a wife
is to the husband what the husband makes her.
They did not understand that even
in the depths of misery, life goes on.
Squirrels play. Bees forage. Hemlocks bow.
Sitting at the kitchen table, I eat yesterday’s meat,
with peas and carrots, a bowl of rice pudding.
Doomed is the house without any love.

more