Wonderland; Revisited

The world isn't broken, You just need new eyes

Quiet was the day,

The worlds spin but a hum

My mind wandered away

Earth gave way beneath my feet

Once so firmly planted

Down,

Down

The rabbit hole

Came I to it’s base;

A ghost town of half-envisioned

Lego block buildings

The pain of an abandoned

Childhood tangible in the air

 

“Cruel vision! “

Cried I

“Leave my sights

Leave me be!”

Opening my eyes as per waking

 

“Vision?”

A voice above

“Reality? Have you the power to banish either?”

Absolem in all the haughtiness so naturally his

Curled himself above me

Upon the plank of the Jolly Rodger

The smoke poured from his copper Hookah

Making the air thick in his presence

 

Believing myself mad I wiped my eyes clear

“You are not either; you are but a dream.”

My voice hung in the air, that of a child’s

“I have power over this.”

 

“Who are you answering; me or yourself?”

His hundred free arms crossed in a fury fashion

The crafter of riddles carried on in his droll

 

Said I in my heart

Why would I create such a dull vision?

Came a flash of red to my side

“Mr Fox!”

The mischievous mongrel trotted past me

By instinct bringing me and my spirit fast behind

 

Out of the hole bloomed what had once been a forest

My breath stalled

Where once there had been fields of flowers

Rose high towers of stone,

Polished to the sheen of a mirror

 

I found my feet and carried on with swiftness renewed

This was not the place of dreams I’d left

The home which had filled the time of my youth

The ground was all wrong

The air had no songs

What had become of the wonder?

 

“Peter!”

A voice from beyond the hill called out

Peter Pan!

My heart rejoiced

He would ease my woes

 

What greeted my from over the hill

Was a strange hide-away of masonry and stone

With a white picket fence surrounding

 

Who was this that stood in the door way?

This suited man of reason

Who leaned upon a cane?

Surely he could not be my Peter

The boy of yesteryear

With a single shared look

We knew one another

And my rejoice turned to sadness

 

From within the dwelling came the voice

Whose beaconing had hailed me forward

 

“Alice!”

I cried in dismay

 

What stood before me

Beside Peter

Was a ripe woman

Not the little thing in knee socks

I’d left behind

She was all the grace of a misplaced popper

Diana reborn

 

No longer the fey boy and little girl at play

They stood before me a vision

Of Mother and Father;

My Peter and Alice

 

Tears of heavy gravel

Which had once been diamonds

Fell from my eyes

Dismay brought me to my knees

 

What had become of the wonder?

 

“What has become of the world?

Where goes the merriment of youth?

The fantasy of our days?”

 

Each in their turn came to my side and took my hand

There would be no flight

Together we moved through the stoned world

 

“Hook sleeps unrestful in his grave,

And the Red Queen is in exile

The world turns with a new song”

Peter gestured to a narrow stream

“The snake has nothing if not its head;

The pirates and Maids of the sea

Have joined together in the Coral industry”

 

“When an earthquake destroyed the Hallow

The Fairies and Centaurs rebuilt their homes of stone

Together they have drafted webs of virtuality

One may communicate without great journey”

 

“This is wrong!”

Cried I, throwing my fists in the air

“Where are the adventures,

The great stories?

The dragons whose fire threatens

The Unicorn sweeping through the shadows?”

 

A direct insult in calmness Peter laughed

“There are no fights to be had,

Progress is the story of the day.

The Dragons still breathe in Volcanos

Heating the world where it grows too cold

The Unicorns have cataloged their ancient wisdom

Offering it freely to any who might seek it.”

 

“Industry, Castles of stone, False Reality

Dragons who help

And Unicorn who teach?

What has become of the wonder?”

In those very words I poured out my heart

It was gone

The world I’d loved as a child

 

They had nothing for me but looks of concern

With a motion I followed them,

Begrudgingly into a stone hall

It opened into a ballroom of clean lines

 Only the faintest wind filled the air

Each person within the room was a silhouette,

An unworking music box

My heart broke

 

“Only walls and a floor, A waste of space!”

A down cast glare brought my shadow into view

It grew ever darker, and with it the lines in the room

 

“Who are you to claim a space as waste?”

A voice unseen

 

Raising in anger I sought out the

Wordy Caterpillar with his smoke

Absolem, it was not

 

Suited all in gold the Mad Hatter revealed himself

Stepping out with an abundance of Astaireian charm

He offered me his hand

“Just because you refuse to hear the music,

Doesn’t mean it isn’t there”

 

“You are mad.”

I insisted preparing to turn from it all

 

“Then we are a perfect pair”

He swept up my protesting hand

Spinning me into a waltz

Despite the silence that surrounded us

To a forgotten lullaby

The entire room became animated

 

Though they made different steps

My feet moved in glass slippers

The air suddenly enchanted

 

How the dance had changed

A lullaby now  so intangible that once I had cuddled

And yet its beauty moved my body all its own

Because I allowed it

 

Alice and Peter joined us upon the floor

A dance all their own

Queer and jovial in reserve

 

In each of hearts I could hear laughter

Laughter of children

Laughter of the Earth

 

All around us moved the creatures of the past

Only vaguely still the beings they once were

Their dances were strange

The whispers of their songs teasing my ears

My heart was ignited

With thought

 Some time in my sleeping

The world had changed

Given way to safety

To that which they called Progress

The world had changed,

My friends had aged

Still

The Wonder was there

All along

I had only been choosing

Not to see it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Author's Note

Virtuality- Virtual Reality
Astaireian- In relation to Fread Astaire