you taught me to fight off Jabberwockies
and now I know how to survive a kidnapping by a walrus and a carpenter
and to beware the bandersnatch

you never scared me, although I pretended you did to make you happy
tygers were more of a threat to me than you ever were
but you liked to think you were strong
and chaotic-neutral
but I liked to think I balanced you by being the lawful one

we were like Bronte’s
minus one
and you were the better poet
I never did understand your philosophy

but dangling McGill bags was always enough
and surviving Carroll attacks
at least I never forgot the oysters were eaten
at the end
and the significance of the name Earnest

and your name was better than that of a rose
although I did find it long
and even though you thought you were an alien
to me, you’ll always be the Queen of Cats

I’ll pull the trigger one day
when Carroll and Blake and Shakespeare will have soaked up my limbs
we weren’t meant for this century, after all

I have faith you’ll be alright
because you do
(I was always jealous of it)

I’ll be waiting with vorpal blade, my bibliophilic f(r)iend
beneath the Tumtum tree

sigh