Tony Leuzzi
The Peasant Woman's Words to Hans
--after Grimm's
Follow the course of a feather the wind carries like a leaf through the forest. It will land where a thousand pearls are buried underneath an ant hill, where a key sits at the bottom of a river, and a queen bee discovers honey on a virgin's lips. Give crumbs to the ants and they will carry the pearls to your feet. Sing songs to a duck and it will plunge the water's depths for the key. Let the bee hear your humming and it will not sting the girl. Then, string the pearls around her neck and unlock her with the key. She will squeak open like a door. There you must enter, leap like a frog through a tiny ring of fire….