The Old Curiosities Shop
“Curiouser and curiouser”, cried Alice
as she rummaged through the remnants
of other people’s lives,
now offered for sale,
to become part of
another person’s life.
“Curiouser and curiouser”, she said
holding up two fat schoolboy
salt and pepper pots.
“They look like real characters,
I shall name them Tweedle Dumb
and Tweedle Dumber,
for now.”
She searched in vain for a looking glass
to see if she could walk through it.
She had heard this was sometimes
a curious possibility.
But among the objects in a large shiny bag,
she did find a set of playing cards
with a fearsome looking Queen of Hearts.
“I could write a good story about her”,
she thought.
She found the butler with his empty tray
somewhat unsatisfactory.
So she removed the tray
and hung a tape measure round his neck
and put a thimble on his finger.
Now he could measure his former master
for a new suit, she thought.
She was pleased with the transformation
and thought that maybe it was now time
to transform herself.
She undressed
and donned a little black dress
that she found in the shiny bag.
She painted her face
and covered her blond hair
with a dark wig
in a new style.
Such a pity
that there was no looking glass
for her to view her appearance.
She could only imagine
her new self.
Such a pity
that no one
would ever see
what she had created.
That no one
would ever know.
Or so she thought.
First published in Visual Verse, July 2017
Certain And Impossible Events
Age is surely a certainty,
or so Alice had thought
after all birthdays are hardly
impossible events
arriving each year
on the same day,
as they certainly do.
But the Red Queen assured her
that certainty was unnecessary
when it came to determining age.
You are just as old as you feel
and seeing was believing anyway.
So Alice reconsidered her hypothesis.
The older one gets
the more difficult it is to know
for certain, she thought.
How can one judge the wrinkles
under make-up
or Botox.
It was impossible to be certain.
Really, she decided
as she looked through
her looking glass,
age should become one of the six
impossible things to believe
before breakfast.
First published in Brave And Reckless, February 28 2022
Smile
It was the purr she heard first,
so loud it was almost a growl.
But a dog up a tree?
No, she knew that would be mad!
So she wasn’t surprised to see a cat
when she looked up
and wasn’t surprised to see it smiling.
She expected it to be happy with so loud a purr.
You must be pleased to see me, she thought,
watching it stretch and sleepily curl.
She felt sleepy too so she curled like the cat.
And together they dreamed smiley dreams
until she heard a crash
as the branches broke
and the cat landed heavily in her lap.
Then she woke
to find
the cat had disappeared.
Only the smile remained.
And that weighed nothing at all.
First published in Blognostics, Feb/March 2019
Alice Checks The Queen
‘Your time is up’ said Alice.
She knew it didn’t matter
how big she was
or how small
in the end.
She knew it didn’t matter
in the end
whether the queen was red or white,
whether time moved backwards or forwards.
In the end
there was still no stopping it,
still no changing it
however many time-pieces the Queen owned,
however many times she moved the hands
on or back on the clock-face.
It made no difference.
‘You’re just a pawn
on the wheel of time’
said Alice,
‘No wonder you look glum’
First published in Fevers of the Mind, Poetry and Art Anthology, November 2022
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Consequence Journal, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Gyroscope Review, Blue Pepper, Arachne Press and So It Goes.
https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/
