SEED OF FEAR Hansel and Grethel A Fractured Folk Tale

HANSEL AND GRETHEL*—A FRACTURED FAIRY TALE Poem written for and submitted to “The Seed of Fear Poetry Contest,” Jami Patterson, sponsor, August 5, 2025. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the great city where towers scraped the sky, lived an accountant with taxes too high. His fingers trembled over empty ledgers, scary times calling for drastic measures. No longer in democracy did his country embrace personal freedoms left without a trace. The economy did falter most everyone, including him, lived in squaller. His wife sighed, "Oh, what shall we do? Our cupboards are bare, our dreams bid adieu. No bread to share and not enough food for Hansel, Grethel, you, and me. We’re screwed!” “There's a camp on city’s outskirts,” he did say, "where the broken, lost, and weary can stay. There we can live free on government aid. So, dear wife, not to worry, for everything will be paid!" “We can’t go there!” she said, her voice filled with dread. "We shall not seek where the lost souls are led, in a camp where the government with us its taxes has bled offering breadcrumbs to our children instead." Hansel, with his innocence, clutched his mother’s skirt. Grethel, with wide eyes and a sweet voice, filled the air with mirth. But with heavy hearts, they packed up their toys and possessions~ no more yearnings, no more hunger or worries, only depression. The night was beastly cold, hope worn thin. The stars watched Hansel and Grethel’s struggles begin. The camp, a frightening place, was filled with sorrow, no more dreams of a bright, better tomorrow. Personal freedom was bartered for fear; drugs and violence were always near. Curfews, rampant theft, socialism, and criminal infestation took hold in our once great nation-now the land of desperation *Note: "Hansel and Grethel is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. It tells the story of two siblings who are abandoned in a forest by their stepmother and encounter a witch who lives in a house of candy." (Wikipedia.com)