You Delivered Us From Evil (Gretel's Soliloquy) Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the surface of the story seemed so bright

we were led into it like children lost in a wood

expecting something good, some treat.


for we were sweet.


some chance to sleep in the rose beds

guarded by angels.

this is not what happened.


though we thought it would.

though we packed everything

and were on our way.

and we were merry, under an eggshell sky.


a thousand times a day since

I've wished that I could stray

and follow the path back


and choose by knowing what I know today

a much more diffident way and been at home.

and then I think well. it happened as it did


and God still led us out by the hand in between rainstorms

and I don't understand even how that happened.


mary angela douglas 15 april 2020