I’m not sure how I first heard the song “White Rabbit”
or if I even heard it first
Maybe I read the lyrics somewhere or looked it up
after hearing Relient k’s song “Jefferson Aeroplane”
Either way, it was the first time I’d heard

that kind of psychedelic allusion to literature
with its strong ranchero beat
and female voice rumbling like a truck’s
idling engine

I’ve always envied the kind of girl
who can make her voice rumble down deep
like she’s a cowgirl holding her own in a pistol-Slick
chauvinistic shootout
The darts I’d spit in this vocal stick-up would
leave my sky-high throat done and dead

but not Grace.

Not Grace Potter, either
her sultry, dusky cover song
favoring the soundtrack of Tim Burton’s
gothic Alice with a cherry on top
of delectable cupcake noise

No one who writes a song about Wonderland
is afraid to use melodies that originate in a

carnival sideshow or a twisted fantasy
a little off-kilter
but haunting in the way that an angel
dressed in gray is far more compelling than
white.

Whether Through the Looking Glass or
on an Adventure,
the story of a girl who tumbled down a
rabbit hole piques my curiosity
and inspires and is inspired by
all things strange and beautiful

For all the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire
Cat and butterflies made out of bread
the best representation of any nonsense

is a little white rabbit who goes down
a hole with a pocket watch

and you grow ten feet tall
only to wake up and find out it’s
all a dream

or is it really?
I wouldn’t know
but you can go ask Alice
or just Jefferson Airplane