So you solve the anagram (from "Hit the lump of rich seal" to "The Triumph of Achilles") and sit down to write an acrostic spelling out the author’s name. If you’re Helen Brandenburg, what do you do? You double the stakes. The last letters of the lines spell out "Louise Gluck" backwards. And you demonstrate the resemblance between fairy-land puzzles (children "out of crumbs" in the woods) and poems ("no / kisses to cure evil"). . — DL
To Gretel: A Double Acrostic
Left alone in the forest—out of luck,
out of crumbs, you sense something in its sac
undulating. Always another snafu
in utero, you think. Ill will
sizzles its song
everywhere.
Give it a rest, Sis—
Lighten up, He says. But, for you, Lost Willi,
under every rock cobwebs wait. You stop. You
choose to look hard—give us no
kisses to cure evil.
— Helen Brandenburg