Gretel Introduces Herself

Everyone wants to know
about what came after,

if we found the witch's treasure
and took it home.

Can you see there was no home
but hers willing

to keep us? In that future,
his place was a gallows,

and mine was a stake, or a press,
or a pit, or a lake.

My hands have touched
her body, they carry her scent.

And my brother, stuffing
his pockets with pearls

and stones. Some habits are hard
to break. Others break like bones.