If a path to the Gingerbread House 
could be established by breaking crumbs
off its edifice and sprinkling them 
so as to find what lies behind us

across the featureless fairytale 
void of childhood: yet how very quick
that trick wears out when the story's track
takes hold, takes toll, a far-older trail

prevails, we're forced to give up this lost
cause; and the fact is that every last
morsel was gone long before the you

or I might totter our way back here 
to try to dissuade all these other 
Hansel-Gretels hollering in queue.