Alice

“Alice!  
Your chalice  
Is dripping with malice…  
a shallow of hallow seeped into your palace.”  
Follow the rabbit to the darkest of depths  
Plunge into the mire of the gatekeepers cleft  
   
Trickling down through the tangle of vines  
The fungus is shrinking her down as she dines  
A wee little door and a gut full of shrooms  
Into the obscure from this stark little room  
   
“What a curious place,” she spoke under her breath  
“Could it be that I have submit to my death?”  
With a shake of her head and her brow in a furrow  
Out popped the rabbit straight out of his burrow  
   
“I’m late! I’m late!” Cried the panicky fellow  
But Alice could not quip much more than a, “Hello?”  
Gone in a whisper, he flit through the sable  
Past the Mad Hatter who’s head of the table  
   
“Alice, do join us.” The dormouse declare  
“The tea is exquisite and temptingly rare.”  
As the psychos had bantered so random of tales  
Alice slinks past them, “so long now!” She wails  
   
Into the plume of the hookah, divine  
The chime of its essence is smoother than wine  
The illusory ride; the leaf-eaters hype  
The euphoria toils from the wick of his pipe  
   
As the bug waft away in a virginal flutter  
The hum of the twins filled the air with their mutter  
“I haven’t got time for such lengthy of story!”  
On a whim full of vim, the twins story turned gory  
   
“What a terrible fate of that poor little oyster!”  
Alice could feel her eyes fill with moisture  
Swelling with sadness, her tears started growing  
As she wept and she wept, the sea started flowing  
   
“Oh dear, it is clear, I haven’t time to be blue.”  
With dry eyes, she surmised, “there’s much more here to do!”  
As the ocean relinquished, she furthered her travels    
Into the forest where the darkness unravels  
   
The Cheshire Cat, O’ the slyest of foe  
Let’s you dine on his smile while perusing your woe  
Beguiling and wily; a coin with one side  
A handful of smitten; a mouthful of pride  
   
“Have you answered the call of the Queen of the hearts?
Slip past the tree; take the path where it starts.”  
Alice, unmindful, marched south past the elm  
Nixed the signs of imperil as she heads to her realm  
   
As the music imposed in the ears of the child    
from the spades in the glade where the roses, defiled  
enlisting the aid of the sweet little starlet  
they’re painting the roses much redder than scarlet  
   
As the horns began sounding, the rabbit whipped by  
Past the cards in the deck, splayed out to comply  
The Queen clipped the roses dripping with red  
In a howl, she’s foul, “Now off with their heads!”  
   
Alice devised she was aiding the spades  
but her majesty balks at the truth she evades  
“Perhaps a quick game and all will be fine.  
If you lose, dear Alice, your head will be mine!”  
   
As the rules were bent for the portly red Queen    
Alice abandoned the match as a dream  
“What a curious sleep! What a furious mess!”  
As she brushes the blood of the spades from her dress  
   
*Non-competition entry