Unsatisfied
Go youthful dreams that you still humor
In your attempt to play
Within our massive court—
Know that with one roll of my dice
You’re gone.

This pale realm is where
Hunters of fair mind
Rule other, weaker hearts
And true guards are scarce.
The queen has brought it all upon me,
So I’m gone.

Notes

This one has been edited over the years with the most recent edit being on October 25, 2007. As with all my poetry, if I think it has a good base idea, I keep it around and adjust phrasing over the years so that its meaning is clearer than it used to be. I have a theory that when I get the urge to write poetry, whatever I write down may be as scrambled as all get-out, but there’s a meaning to it that I may not even understand myself as I write. However, with time and further contemplation, I usually manage to polish a poem such that it’s cleaner, better, and its original meaning becomes more refined.

With this one, I had Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in mind, and more specifically, the video game American McGee’s Alice, which is a darker version of Carroll’s original story. The first stanza I interpret as being from the Queen of Hearts, directed toward Alice, who in the game is the Queen’s enemy. The second stanza is from Alice’s perspective, and she’s making commentary that those under the Queen’s rule are weak. In the first stanza, the Queen is implying that she has control over Alice, who can be killed with something as simple as a roll of the Queen’s dice. The end of the second stanza, however, has Alice denying the Queen’s power over her, and Alice goes her own way. I see this as basically Alice’s way of saying, “To hell with you!” to the Queen.