image borrowed from bing
Ecila’s Rorrim
“You are eternity, and you are the mirror.”
--Kahil Gibran.
Ecila was a young poet,
who lived alone in a rented cottage
in the countryside, and she was spending
her first winter there.
The realtor who found the cottage for her,
gave her his assurances that the lovely
domicile was fit & hardy--& the perfect place
for a young writer to find inspiration;
his name was Charles L. Dodgeson.
One cold wintry eve, with flames roaring
in the fireplace, Ecila sat comfortably
in a tall red armchair, with her two kittens
playing at her feet,
one white (Snowdrop),
& one black (Kitty)--finding
the yin/yang feline combo
perfect as companions.
She held a large tablet on her lap, favoring
the bright yellow legal pad to write upon;
working on the beginnings of a poem,
wanting to explore a metaphysical theme
of overlapping dimensions, alternate worlds,
extended entity personalities, & time travel.
A tall full-length mirror stood on its stately
brass pedestal near the fireplace, & the flames
glowed sweetly in its depths.
Something prompted Ecila to look up,
& to her surprise, her own reflection
was inaccurate; she was standing
somewhere wearing a black & white
waitress outfit, with a short red apron.
She was fascinated as she rose
& approached the tall glass portal.
There was a bustling diner on the other side,
decorated with fairy tale murals;
Jabberwocky’s Joint
read the neon sign hanging over
the ice cream/soda bar.
Oddly, she could no longer see
her own reflection in the scene,
so she leaned in closer & could hear
both Elvis & the Everly Brothers
tunes blasting out of large flower pots
that looked like jukeboxes,
& the brightly colored flowers
were singing the lyrics.
“Alice, my girl, where is my Big Man burger?”
She turned to face the customer,
who was a very rotund man, barely
able to sit upon the two chairs he
had scooted together.
“Coming right up, Hump--don’t get excited
& fall off your chairs again,” she said,
heading for the kitchen.
“Well hustle up, princess--you know that
I am celebrating my unbirthday again today!”
The floor was made up of large black & white
squares, like a huge chess board, & the chrome
furniture all had pink, red, & green tops.
“Alice, babe, our fave shorty,”
said the two white rappers,
T-Dum & T-Dee, in harmony,
“Don’t forget our two hot fudge mondies.”
The other older waitress whizzed past her; everyone
called her Red, because of her Lucy-dyed tresses.
“Sunny today, but bundle up tomorrow
because we are expecting icy snain,”
warbled a blond weather girl on television,
all dressed in white to match her platinum curls.
Finally reaching the huge kitchen door,
she swung it open & found herself facing
herself in a tall mirror, where her Alice
name tag looked like it read Ecila.
She suddenly awoke to kittens purring,
a fire crackling, & the winter wind howling
outside, and for a moment she
could not recognize her world,
could not separate the dreamscape
from the landscape;
but then as the room pulled
into focus, she began to scribble madly
on her note pad
and a new poem
began to emerge from
her pen.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics
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22 comments:
haha...so cool...you transported it into today.... the floor like a chess board... her in a diner... hey... i bet working there as a waitress for a while gives you loads and loads of poetry to write...smiles... i have to go and check my mirror..smiles
Interesting when the dreamscape and the landscape fade into one another...and are somewhat indistinguishable. You created an interesting story here, Glenn. Glad to see a poem emerging in the end.
I wish I could sometimes go through the mirror, travel across another world and wake up with the inspiration to write a poem!
ha you have created quite the space there g...i like that its a little diner joint as well..all the characters familiar...i spent plenty of time as a kid wishing i could step through the mirror...i could def see a visit such as this an inspiration...nice name drop on the realtor/or home owner
what a trip.. great transportation back into the looking glass .. really nice with rappers and waitresses.. yes that's how it would look today
And you transported us into another world and the inside of your mind with this cleverly spun piece! Lewis Carroll would love this, I am sure!
Love where you imagination took you Glenn ~ A bit of a grown up Alice but still retaining the newness of the adventure ~ Dreamscape can be our take off point for writing ~
Gosh, no one has mentioned the mirror-image title. I thought it was fun; maybe it is self-evident.
Lovely - cool - thought-provoking
You have transposed Carroll into a different key and it really works.
That's a really fascinating allegory of Wonderland. I like the customer's relation to the characters of Wonderland! Excellent!
You do come up with such marvels. This bedtime story read so beautifully, is sending me to sleep.
Poets suffer. They are anxiety ridden. Or else they could not make art.
Glenn! I love your story - what a tale - each detail made me smile- K
Making a second visit, Glenna. Truthfully I had not noticed the mirror-split title until you mentioned it above; and I reread it again and saw what you meant. Definitely adds to the cleverness of your poem...it had not been 'self-evident' to me.
Ecila, that's clever,Glenn! A mirror image. A great story brought memories from across through the mirror. Elvis and the Everlys were during my teenage years. What fun, juke box of the early 60s. Great one!
Hank
The Alice of our days... brilliant recreation of the story. I have to confess I prefer the Looking Glass to Wonderland too.
This is so clever! Well-played, Glenn!
so much contrast you've worked in your piece
I totally enjoyed this narrative poem with wonderland as muse!
This was very creative and different from all the others, because it is from a modern time.
great description. love how the Alice bit is the undream =) and the fireplace is backtofrontland. could imagine this as a film/animation.
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