The moral of the story was supposed to be:

     Little girls should not walk alone in the dark.

     Well, that is simply not practical

Sometimes a girl has places to go

      And she has to brace the wolves.

If you are a girl who has to navigate a forest, there is someone you call:

      The Red Riding Hood

      (She stopped being Little a long time ago)

You can’t always rely on wandering woodsman, but you can always rely on her

      Red will take the little girls through the forest to Granny’s or to work or to the club

            And any wolf who dares to howl in their direction will meet her axe

Never again will any girl be swallowed up

      There’s some things you can never forget, her grandma told her, and being eaten is one of them

The village girls love their Red, always bring a little something for her in their basket

        But sometimes a girl wants to walk alone

Red knows that urge, the one that beat her fear on the day she became a cautionary tale

         She finds some spare axes

No one tells the part of the story where Little Red Riding Hood became a plural noun and girls stopped fearing dark forests

         (If girls are afraid, they’re easier to control)

But if you’re wandering in the woods alone and you see a flash of scarlet

              Know you are not alone

              Know the wolves can’t get you