as time waits to exhale

the white rabbit
turns his pockets out
to search for a mislaid watch

chess board squares
stretch their boundaries
and the unseated knight
grapples with the bishop

the king and queen
sip dandelion tea and dine
on radish sandwiches

(the cucumber cannot be spared
for the dormouse refuses to serve it)

but does it matter
the mad hatter is detained
alice absent as well

even the cheshire cat
misremembers the time
and so quilt free slumbers beneath
a mushroom bereft of company

still you and I will dine awhile
then slip back through the mirror
resume the schedule
of clocks not our own

and leave to memory
the taste of an idle afternoon

fractured reality

delusion becalmed
masks surreal surrender

as the crest of consciousness
constrained by doubt and insecurity
morphs into a journey
we did not choose

this struggle for normalcy
rides chaotic waves
as rose colored skies
fade to uncertain fog

then vassalage
is bartered for the surety
of tomorrow’s children

but is the ransom enough

unfretted

long haired tresses
resistant to a brush
seem like fishing nets
tossed by an angry current

as time swims by
fingers coach snarls free
and locks of burnished gold
released
taunt the clip
that once tried
to contain them

Recalling the Exodus

A solitary tear is but the beginning of a deluge.
The Banshee’s wail the keening for generations lost.
Stone, thatch and grass remember as aged
rocks weep and the mists of yesterday
weave shroud-like through hills and valleys.

A lone seagull caresses the waking sky.
Storm-like cries of unseen shadows shake
the deserted coast. Seaweed is ripped and tossed.
Here tears are measured with grains of sand.
Yesterday’s pain the haunting echo of forgotten kells.

Bright green the countryside, fair blue the sky, but hollow
are the empty shells that others once called home.
Their sacrifice stains yet the doorways of their land,
reminders of a belief in a promise that led the souls that left.
Then famine raised hopes that dreamed of more than bread.

Links of interest:
Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll Society of North America
Lewis Carroll’s poetry
Eire.com
Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick’s day

In The Fray Contributor