Poetry || Submissions

Hansel and Gretel
and other poems
by Josef Lesser

Hansel and Gretel

He promised his father to always hold his sister's hand
to chew each mouthful of bread slow and long and never
never turn back. Years later he would tell his children
about their grandparents secret whispers in the night
dark wails of hate of key-hole eyes in black boots
witches in black peaked caps, of ovens clothed in layers
of melting fairy floss. Of the path left or right his toss.

Left, or was it right his father instructed, don't eat
the fairy floss run from the witch and the ovens.
But flight is crippled when stomachs are empty
and we all know the story how they walked the wrong
path straight to the masked ball where a cottage
stood disguised as a cream sponge cake and a soldier
masquerading as an old woman in black boots and cap.

Years later Hansel would never tell,
his tongue always fell off at this point
at the moment his sister slipped
through the icing roof
through the branding pens
through the numbers game.

His tongue never betrayed him
never described the small moustache
on the old witch in black boots
or the sound an oven door makes
as it opens and shuts ..... opens and shuts
............. eighteen nineteen twenty.

Letter to Mr. Chagall (for Edith)

Dear Mr. Chagall,
I am writing to ask you to be the master of ceremony at my weding to my sweet natasha you did this work for her sister do you remember her sister anna who maried the boy who milks the cows his name is leo and anna said you are so good you made them feel like they were flyng in the sky with the moon and stars my name is yury and i am not good at words or speling i had to leave scool when ten to help with the pigs my uncle has do you remeber uncle hyme he told me you were master of ceremony when he had a big sixty party and your talk made him feel he was flyng with his fiddle over the houses in our town and all the streets had a color like he has not seen before and my other friend nikolay who marrid katya told me a secret that your words made them like lovers in blue at night when they kissed they saw the world in blue my mother says you are an artist not like a painter but maybe better you make peeple feel good and see dreams and colors and they dance and sing and make love like i will with my natasha you are the greate greate master of ceremony leo told me a red angel touched them on the head and our rabbi of vitebsk remembers when you were a litle boy and you made storys and pictures of profets moses and isiah do you still make pictures like my other uncle grigory he knew you in school and said you made nice pictures of a magic flute and a bird on the moon do you think of school sometime and my uncle if i finished school i mite be good like you and everybody wood ask me to make them fly and paint dreams and sing and love and laugh and cry and make cows jump on stars and fidles play in the sky but i only look after pigs mother says everybody has to look after somthing and she told me you look after hearts and souls and spirits i do not know what she means i have to finish now i am going to the circus with natasha and nikolay and katya we are sad that you are not the mc tonite rabbi shmuel said i can say mc insted of the full word for your work he told us when he went to the circus you were the mc and you made all the people of vitebsk see colors of life and a boy flew on a chicken the cow played with the sun flowers waltsed and he said even the goat had fun yes you do bring color and hapinnes to peeple that is why natasha and me want you to be our mc please say you will do the work i have saved money from the pigs
your friend
yury

His Story

Holidays hiking sharing jokes sharing fantails sharing
father and son. For a moment in my astral zone I watch
best friends shaking hands, communion of birds deep
inside the rain-forest, unselfish acts on history's stage.
Time in reverse through the portholes I travel a voyeur
inside the galaxy plane then jump, free-falling falling ----

All flows until page eighty two raises the curtain, a scene
change develops and a new player enters stage left
a drop-out from A.A. the monthly pay cheque ritual;
life and whisky transform the miner's arms, hands
that yesterday unwrapped the fantail now out of sync
break doors break chairs break his day, the story.

Reading, I thought of my father and thanked God
nothing similar ever happened to me. I remembered
once just once he took me to a movie he wanted to see.

I know what I want to say

After the sermon, after the silence
After the proverbial crash of the pin
I spoke "you are brain washing your
Flock, hiding behind obscure cures,
Obscure words from some obscure
Parchment, you are a fraud".

I knew what I wanted to say
A PhD. rabbit in language
     Revealed the way and I said it.

Like at the pizza place I know,
"Family size house special
Extra chilli easy on the garlic".

"Return single window seat."
"Sorry I'm late plane was delayed".

Always the rabbit feeding me words.

Take this morning for example,
Nudged awake by a poem, an alarm
Moving in off-shore balanced on the crest
Riding the wave into my thoughts;
And I want to say without delay

"Rabbit, where the fuck are you"?

Give us this day

Give us this day our daily bread
forgive us our hunger:

Give us this day our thimble of water
forgive us our thirst:

Give us this day the colour of wine
forgive us our skin:

Give us this day our dime and our dollar
forgive us our labour and sweat:

Give us this day our moment to speak
forgive us our tongues are not glued:

Give us this day our god of our choosing
forgive us our god is of cotton:

Give us this day a day without pain
forgive us our selfish request:

Give us this day our vote without fear
forgive us electing another:

Give us this day our sex without spies
forgive us then just close the door:

Give us this day your word and your hand
forgive us our faith in a handshake:

Give us to-day back our soil and our bones
forgive us our past lies before you:

Give us to-day the key to our chains
forgive us our feet must run free:

Give us to-day back our rhythm songs and folk-lore
forgive us but share the translation:

Give us this day to-day and no other
peace in your hand
trust in your eyes
truth on your tongue
forgive us as we run together once more:

Josef Lesser lives with his wife in Coffs Harbour which is on the mid-north coast of New South Wales Australia.