Beware the Hungry Child and Its Mother

In small village towns, villagers must beware the hungry child and its mother. Kind families, appalled at seeing a hungry child, have been known to invite the child and mother in and offer them a place to stay. They all eat their initial meal, and with much gratitude repeated to their host, they retire to sleep.

After they sleep the first night, it is discovered that the seemingly helpless mother is a witch and her child a mutant with an appetite that can destroy the neighboring forests.

The following day, they eat all the food in the house.

They prowl the whole region, killing innocent travelers. Because of the mighty incantations of the witch, the townspeople can’t rid their town of the witch or her terrible young.

Day by day, the witch and her young stalk the forests, then return to the helpless villager’s home to rest in their generously offered room. Each day and night, the kindly hosts cower in fear of the witches’ spells and ravenous young.

It is only once the forests are cleared of travelers and all the food in the town is gone that the witch and her young leave to find their next host. And this is why people of small villages by the forest must learn to say no to the child when it begs for help.

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Ammanda Selethia Moore

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Ammanda Selethia Moore (they/elle) is a non-binary poet and writer who also teaches English at Norco College. Their poetry has been published in Synchronized Chaos, Literary Yard, and The Journal of Radical Wonder. They live with their partner in sunny southern California.

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