A Dream Country Where You Go Around Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

for Lewis Carroll's Alice

a dream country where you go around
asking too many questions of creatures who
resemble no one from your former life

could only end unfairly

in a dream-execution
but you saw through them

they're a pack of cards

even the Queen
you said, or meant to say

the words muffled into the soft

river grass

so brave in your blue frock

because you already knew
the story must end uniquely

in your world

especially when it begins like
every other

once-upon-a-time...

mary angela douglas february 2008