Pear drops of happiness hang:
are sugared lanterns of night
dripping nectar sweetness -
a honeybee’s glowing warmth
awaits each flickering tongue:
are nocturnal wisps of heaven.
Starved, sugarless orphans
meander meaninglessly
in serpentine forest:
abandoned, shunned
by blind, gelatinous parents.
Hansel & Gretel
wind and wander wondrously,
swallowed by nocturnal forgiveness,
Mother Nature’s lapping hand.
Gingerbread rooftops
waft Christmastime warmth,
a heady, buoyant aroma
coating malnourished skin
be-speckled golden sheen;
lollipop chimney stacks
enlighten like traffic lights,
enveloping human life
within sweetened boughs.
Candy floss smoke waves
cherry-kissed greetings
to gaunt, withdrawn faces
pinched with need,
drawn as inked illustrations;
they pick sweets from walls
overbrimming empty stomachs,
gladdening in sugary hedonism:
erasing cares and woes
as glow worms at dulling dusk.
Window sills are liquorice-lined
holding sugar-spun,
glossy windows;
a toffee-apple door knocker
falls into fattening fingers
like a damsel poisoned;
Hansel & Gretel spin
within a glucose globule
as new travellers,
swelling with intrigue, abundance.
Time moves, shifts, saunters
and no witch schemes
over a steaming cauldron
awaiting sprawling limbs.
Years fall away as uneaten calories
as sibilant sweetness loses shine.
The cottage ages
becoming naked,
sweet-less;
books adorn walls,
not sugary softness.
Visitors travel far, wide –
to secret bibliophile heaven
where candy canes
are novels, poetry, plays
offering a twisted,
subversive library:
sugarcoating travellers’ minds,
re-awakening, literary depths…
Emma Wells is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published with and by: The World’s Greatest Anthology, The League of Poets, The Lake, The Beckindale Poetry Journal, Dreich Magazine, Drunken Pen Writing, Porridge Magazine, Visual Verse, Littoral Magazine, The Pangolin Review, Derailleur Press, Giving Room Magazine, Chronogram and for the Ledbury Poetry Festival. She also has published a number of short stories and her first novel, Shelley’s Sisterhood, is due to be published shortly.
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