THE LOOKING GLASS
(Down The Rabbit Hole)
To wish someone
You've never met
You'll never hold
To great regret
For time and space
To shrink and swell
Down the rabbit hole
You fell
Where Rabbits late
Will not wait
On questions
Quaint, so trivial
Where Queens insane
Would ask the same
But take your head
And soul as well
Hares and Hatters
Serving tea
With manners more
Than empathy
Where Turtles cry
A Phoenix flies
And dives
Into the burning sea
A Walrus wails
His empty pail
Fills with guilt
When all else fails
Where presents past
And futures last
The answers in
The looking glass
Nod to Lewis Carroll
.
Soon as a shameful scammer appears
Send them off with a clip round the ears
We know what they’re after
Let them do a grafter
As we do through our working years.
One dared try it on little old me
I’m not as daft as he thought I’d be
Put the fool in the place
That was dug with no grace
Where one can prance for eternity.
Scammers must think we’re all mad hatters
That there is nowt in our grey matters
Prove it that they are wrong
In a fine shanty song
So they’ll run off with souls in tatters.
Get rid of scammers quick as you can
Flush them away, flowing down the pan
To where sun doesn’t shine
Not having a great time
Till they are a good woman or man.
Mad as hatters, fed on matters
Older than, mercury and time,
Reflects the way we were made
By nervous webs, being spun
Deep inside Minerva's mind;
Like the way, we came of age
In misty mornings, spent reflecting
On our losses and our gains.
the Halloween dance of the witches and such
Was attended by those who love it very much
There were skeletons and goblins, ghosts galore
All kinds of costumes, no dancer a bore.
They danced around a bonfire, witches and all
Frankenstein and Dracula, gnomes but a foot tall
Ghosts filled the sky, there were mad hatters too
As far as I know they danced in the morning ‘til two
Going lower and lower… and this time I know about it. But instead of fighting I’m just watching myself go down the rabbit hole.
It’s waiting for you Alice. The hare and hatters party. But when I arrive at the table there’s nothing but crumbs ans cold pot of tea.
Cheshire Cat isn’t smiling, and the flowers aren’t in bloom. In fact it’s gloomy today not a golden afternoon.
No playing croquet with queen of hearts and the roses are actually red. No deck of cards to paint with white, and the tweedles they are dead.
Walking through wonderland without an ounce of hope.
Then I see caterpillar choking on a lung full of smoke.
Being stuck down the rabbit hole is one of my biggest fears… then I hear the whispers “we’re all mad here”.
"The Heart’s Eye"
When the heart’s eye
speaks to you,
you listen, just as
when the heart’s eye
sees how it all is,
you feel, touched
in the mind
the heart’s eye
is an overworked muscle
working overtime
a pearl of wisdom
eating you inside out
like a carnival eats
its exposed clowns
eventually it stops
tick-tock
tick-tock
no one truly suspects
the depths of its
depraved covert nature
incognito, it’s a time bomb
some Lewis clock
on a well-lit fob watch
down the rabbit hole
we go journeying
with smiling hatters
who are really Jabberwocks
the heart’s eye is a Red Queen
residing inside
Love, exists, resists,
concedes for all its worth
light and dark treacly stuff
it’s a messy business
it ain't clean,
all said and done
when heads
roll off
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
"Wild Oats, Steel Cut"
Words like food
can become an addiction
it’s in the swallowing
that the story
consumed like
some feast
laid out at the
Hatters Table
poured into
kidney pans
returns
steel cut
in our warm
memories
glitching all over
our wild oats
while we
are stitched up
being fed porridge
and honey
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
Be careful
you could get lost here,
disappear down some mind bent
rabit hole or simply find yourself
deep in someone else’s dream,
which really is your own.
It's hard to separate
fact from fiction once
you're in this space
and besides, you
get comfort here.
It matters little
if you are only borrowed
bits and pieces hung
on a ghostly frame,
imprisoned within the rules
of some mad hatters game.
That person you see
up there, peering down the hole,
is you, and from here
it will be hard to climb back
into yourself
even if you wanted to.
There was much chatter about the new mad hatter
He is madder than the other, said my sister and brother
I want to meet him, I told them, intrigued by the new him.
He was a bit crazier than expected, nutty as suspected, on a whim.
How else would he have met the council’s approval? I said.
He was upside down backwards weird, named himself Odd Ted.
He could run for mayor of crazy town, I suggested immediately.
It was agreed upon unanimously, and delivered with expediency.
For if there is one thing we know about our delightful city, Crazy Town,
It’s undeniably the weirdest, zaniest place under, over, above or down.
Mad hatter turned down our offer to make him mayor and ran away.
The sixth crazy mad hatter mayor that had gotten away that day.
Or i in the inn of the Djinn of the winning whim
Sorry for all those things i am going to do
looking in the shadow
for something
looking for me
Give away my free will
not by choice
The aliens have landed
but humanity's in a VR helmet
and haven't
notice
if you have noticed this notice
just to say
thanks for
noticing
if i lived forever
would i ever be happy
Angels shake their heads
while demons chorus tutting
if i could give a i wouldn't
Forcing my last breath as i spit at death
holding the grain by the grain
write in the wrong mind of frame
We of the ird
The abs of the bird
Cases full of knots and nuts
Put an m at the start of my ad
men until the until
Treeing out the wrong bark
Broke the Hatters favourite hat
he might be a little upset
Peoople is strange
When you are Strange
Error no such data
Wy do we need the h
Free with all my eeks
oddded an extra d
adde an negative d
Pecking at ever uliar
Arranged the d pacifically
Specifically specimen unspecified
A chain
Mis-----sing linked
Never blinked
cause i don't want to open my eyes
Halloween is a scream dressed in orange and black
A night of sneaky creeps that rattle and clack
Vampires conspire to send midnight bat attacks
Witches stirring cauldrons of potent purple snacks
Moonlit foggy streets filling with ghoulish packs
Of superheroes, princesses and lumberjacks
Cowboys with space toys and candy laden sacks
Evil clowns with smiles painted on out-of-whack
Hobos and gypsies from the wrong sides of the tracks
Mad hatters and kooky-eyed conspiracy quacks
Unlucky thirteens losing their crackerjacks
Curses from broken mirrors and stepped-on sidewalk cracks
Better give up the goodies if you don't want payback!
10/25/21
I am in a mood today
Can not say I am mad
I just feel out of place
And no I am not sad
So I will choose to smile
On the inside where it matters
Turn this whole funk around
Avoid annoyed mad hatters
See I ate spaghetti for lunch
Someone else is hungry for sure
Why get my panties in a bunch
Cuz life can be so unsure
I prayed for a place to stay
Looks like that’s in the works
The only thing is I’m afraid
Of acting anti social like a jerk
So please forgive my sharp glance
It is not meant for you
There was this rapist man
Who taught me what I should do
Wearing my gun in a gaze
Instead of packing for real
Really works for bad days
When my attitude isn’t chill
So this mood of gray will pass
And I will finally feel relieved
We all need a good green laugh
So I’m going to watch a comedy.
Breakings
by Michael R. Burch
I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.
But gods without compassion
ordained: "Frail things must break!"
Now what can I do for her shattered psyche’s sake?
I did it not to push.
I did it not to shove.
I did it to assist the flight of indiscriminate Love.
But gods, all mad as hatters,
who legislate in all such matters,
ordained that everything irreplaceable shatters.
There's no one else
not even myself
creep love
into sunlight
as hate watches it leave
Spoon feed hope
on hunger strike
knowing he can't
have long
Selling souls
to belong
Take these words
Thee sword
With E seed
contort
Always short of short
Follow without support
A rap with a port
or are you under
standing underneath the feet
of giants
wearing Hatters cap
Cheshire on my lap
sipping on an app
The days pass quickly
And time disappears
Grab hold of your dreams
Don't dwell on the fears
Once it's all over
Life is dusted and gone
The ones left behind
Remember what you have done
Jump into the unknown
Tell the ones that you love
Live it to the full
Strive to go beyond, and above
Don't leave with regrets
Fulfill all that matters
Do things that make you smile
Become one of the mad Hatters
Pick up the courage
Tell her how you feel
Hold her on your arm
Not trailing at her heel
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