Hidden

Wasn’t it the hidden folk

lived under the barn

that summer when

no one left them

their porridge and sweets

as they were wont to do

when everyone was in

good health and the cows

all sound and giving milk

but no one had asked

the hidden ones’ permission

to use their meadow

when the new folks

moved in and didn’t she say

it was the hidden man so handsome

and dressed better than any of us

with our poor sheepskin shoes

who seduced our daughter

when we were away

and then gave her a son

And wasn’t it when the boy

whose own father teased him

and called him weak and ergi

who was left alone to watch the sheep

when he disappeared

for many years only to reappear

at his father’s deathbed

dressed in fine clothes

embroidered with gold

to claim his inheritance

And wasn’t it on Christmas eve

as dark and foggy as it was

when we all went

to the Christian church

that the hidden ones

started a fire that burned the barn

and that same night

when riding home

our brother and neighbor

fell and was lost in a deep crevice

hidden by the snow

as dark and foggy as it was