Once upon a time
In the late 1900’s actually
And in the normal mundanity
Of the typical boring times we used to live
We read about the adventures of one ‘Alice’
Who fell down a deep, deep rabbit hole
Tumbling
Twisting
Pratfalling at the bottom!
Pain in her own bottom and stars in her head!
Alice found herself in Wonderland
Where her technicolored nightmare begins…
She met colorful, bewitching and zany inhabitants
Like Tweedledee and Tweedledum
and whiny Humpty Dumpty, falling off a wall
There was a wily slime-green caterpillar
and enigmatic Cheshire cat
The Mad Hatter and his friend the March Hare
a talking lion and unicorn
Off-colored flora, fauna and small animals
And most weird of all —
Attending a very proper English tea party
with the buxom ‘Queen of Hearts’
Who ends up ordering her wacky
Deck-of-cards soldiers to chase down Alice
With the intent to be ‘off with her head!’
We all dreaded the inevitable for Alice, didn’t we?
There was no way out!
No way, seemingly
For Alice to get way back up that hole!
Maybe the first horror movie masquerading as a fairytale?
For decades poor Alice’s ordeal gave birth to the warning
—when speaking of ridiculous ideas—
‘You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole!’
Not so funny now
Not in our new normal
Our modern day rabbit-hole has become not so ridiculous
Albeit, still an alternate universe
Yet, a preferable ‘Escapistland’!
Many now yearn to go there
For without apology, there
One finds ‘happiness’
Only fantasies allowed!
None of the awful realities
Offered up in our century and a half
Since Alice fell down her ancient rabbit-hole
Indeed, over our current reality
Many prefer that dark hole
After all, above ground we now live
Under existential threat
A real COVID-19 otherworldly reality
The new rabbit-hole is now touted
As ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’!
Who wouldn’t want to go there!
I sigh
I cry, even
Then I carefully jump over
That huge, dark, gaping hole in the ground before me
And I search instead for true joy
By way of a certain narrow and crooked road
The way to God’s ‘PARADISELAND’
Jahgirl
January 9, 2022