In Pursuit of Poetry

March 24, 2020 - Nikita Gill - Gretel After Hansel

March 24
When I went to a summer writer's retreat last summer, I got to stay in the Nikita Gill room. Now I knew nothing of this writer so I looked her up and found several of her books. I bought Fierce Fairy Tales and I am loving it. I read it in small, savouring chunks. Gill turns fairy tales on their head. I particularly love this one: Gretel After Hansel. Enjoy!

Gretel After Hansel

Did anyone every tell you what happens
if you kill a witch before you grow up?
That you, leave a part of yourself in that storybook place,
saccharine sweet with bittersweet memories?
You are half fairytale, half girl,
with parents who chose to abandon you,
a brother who swore he would never leave
then found a wife and left you.
And here you are picking yourself apart,
breadcrumb by breadcrumb,
trying to learn how to swallow survival,
but a part of you never left the witch's door.
You still have the grit and determination
that stopped a child eating monster
in her tracks, that wasn't Hansel, that was you.
And damaged though you are, that girl is still there.
Our stories don't begin and end
because men, we once trusted have left them,
we were made whole to start with,
independent tales of strength and madness.
What I am trying to say is, Gretel,
you define yourself, without your brother;
you define yourself, with your courage,
which was already imprinted on your bones.
No one taught you how to survive,
darling, you did that on your own.
Even without him, you can bring down monsters.
Believe me. You can still bring down monsters.

My favourite lines are the last seven. I breath that into myself. I am not defined by the men in my life. I am who I am and I am a survivor. I too, can bring down monsters, without him. I think all women need to remember that. Men are just desserts, not our main course.