Alice

Like Alice lost in Wonderland
I have followed my heart on sheer impulse—
I've been down that Rabbit Hole.

I've slipped through Keyholes
with my tears, spun stories with
Tweedle Dee and Dumb, questioned
Disappearing Cats and have lost myself
while chasing someone
who was always out of reach.

I have felt small and
powerless to Kings, undesirable
beside the Queen of Hearts,

have absorbed the Fruit-Loop-Smoke-Rings
conversation and mistaken it for
smarts. I have spun in the Forest
to find my footsteps swept away,

I've been roped into games
of deceptive croquet,
with the maddest of Hatters
I've debated and drank until
we became a reason to celebrate.

This Wonderland offers
disappointments and highs
through which I continue
to cartwheel and spin: embracing,
instigating, hallucinating
until I find myself again.

.