21 January 2019
Babes in the Wood by Maeve Henry
Image via USFWS
'Babes in the Wood' was commended in the 2018 Wasafiri New Writing Prize 'Poetry' category.
Babes in the Wood They have almost forgotten their own names, brother clutching sister’s hand. Birds devoured their trail of crumbs. There’s no way back through open borders, barbed wire, muddy fields, roads, sand, the sea. They wake to rain dripping off the trees, exchange night’s gifts: she slept in Rima’s flat in Mosul, he tasted kebabs in Konak Square, when they sold cigarettes and ran if the police came. Things lost on the journey: passports, her shoes, the grown-ups. When the wood stops they will be at Calais. It’s a dream their mother had. England. It tingles on the tongue like gingerbread. -![](https://www.wasafiri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Maeve-Henry-225x300.jpg)