Gretel and the Unknown Trail
by Priscilla Turner Spada

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.– Robert Frost

Hansel found a brand new trail
and beckoned me to follow him.
I hesitated, I’d heard the tales
of darkened skies and cracked tree limbs;
of candied sweets and macarons
on hidden huts of smiling crones.

I wished to trust my brother, friend,
so I was willing to suspend
my trepidation and pretend
to be at ease and find the end

of this strange path, quite overgrown.
We clambered over walls of fieldstone,
dropping pebbles as we went–
retracing steps was our intent.
In a sunlit clearing, we came upon
an empty hovel, occupant gone.

We'd seen merlin, loon and fawn,
fox and owl and muted swan.
The woods were lovely, dark and deep;
there was no witch to disturb our sleep.

A sweet adventure on a whim;
so glad that I believed in him.



 

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