She was the one who wanted to leave.
The breadcrumbs her idea, too.
She thought, once missing, we
would be missed, sought, found.
She thought inside the heart
could be transformed. I went along.
That was my part, the going with
and the sweet tooth. She had her
uncertainties, which I bedazzled away
with talk, the melt of buttercream,
the cane evaporating from our tongues
at just the right speed. So perfect,
that moment after the stepmother.
The one before the witch arrived,
disguised as love, which is all we were ever after,
before the breadcrumbs, even before
we recognized our own cries as our own.
Michelle Hendrixson-Miller
Michelle Hendrixson-Miller received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte where she served as poetry editor of Qu Literary Magazine. Her poems have appeared in One, Josephine Quarterly, Poems and Plays, The Moth, Adirondack Review, Still, The Fourth River, Harbor Review, Mudfish, Thrush, The Museum of Americana, and 2RiverView. Michelle Hendrixson-Miller received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte where she served as poetry editor of Qu Literary Magazine. Her website is at https://mraehendrixsonmill.wixsite.com/mhmpoems
Artwork: Rob Woodcox
Website: http://robwoodcox.com/
Gingerbread House Lit Mag 