Poem: The Tale of Alice's Illusional Escape

I don't write poetry (though I think I wrote some terrible ones in high school), but this is one of my favorites from a freshman undergrad class. It was actually published in the school's literary magazine, Italics Mine.

If you look at the last word from each line, you'll see that they're repeated in each stanza, except they're slightly switched each time.

In blue moonlight, Alice sips warm tea,

cup and saucer of pale yellow chinking gently.

An owl hoots in the black, nightly distance.

Hardly any noise is to be heard – all is silent.

Her rosy curtains move from the mellow breeze,

a glance out the window to see a white rabbit.

Oddly dressed in a burgundy jacket is the rabbit.

T’was such a fright, she nearly drops her green tea.

A gasp escapes her: noise caught by the milky breeze,

as she sets down the champagne porcelain, ever so gently.

Azure pinafore fabric brushes skin in the silence,

and Alice wonders how far the alabaster rabbit is in the distance.

Hasty footsteps, a white blur in the distance;

on olive grass, waiting, is the furry rabbit.

Golden and ticking, a glint in the eerie silence—

Should Alice have stayed inside with her tea?

A chalky glance back, but she advances gently,

the indigo sky listening with the breeze.

Mumbled, crimson words are stolen by the breeze

as jaded time laughs in the nearby distance.

One departs into the gray hole; two follows gently.

Alice, red heart beating in head, watches the rabbit.

Slow descent, past an odd array: teal umbrella, cup of tea.

“Tsk,” says the creature in the ebony silence. 

Smooth landing on chestnut earth; a supple silence,

but unseen is the cherry jacket in a place with no breeze.

Sapphire tears fall, a downpour of salt, unlike sweet tea.

A river emerges – honey-haired Alice is swept up in the distance

and carried to a large lemon house where she sees the rabbit.

Marked “Drink Me,” Alice’s fingers hold a sage bottle gently.

Unwelcome guest in an ivory party of unusual hosts – tread gently,

Alice thinks to herself in the bittersweet, cobalt silence

with emerald-topped hatter, snoring dormouse, and quizzical rabbit.

Obnoxiously riddled into ruby fury, she mutters into the breeze.

Tangerine laughter stopped short in the near distance—

The crowned, lips scarlet, arrives, though she had no invitation for tea.

Diamonds and spades swept up gently into the navy breeze.

Within the calm, lilac silence, eyes dreary, she looks into the distance.

Alice, thinking vaguely of a white rabbit, sips cold tea.

(Movie still via Gizmodo)