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“Cheshire Cat” a poem by Rob MacWolf (read by Dralen)
Tonight we have a poem by Rob Macwolf, and you can find more of his stories and poetry on his sofurry page.
Read by Dralen, the Dapper Dragonfox.
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https://thevoice.dog/episode/cheshire-cat-by-rob-macwolf
Transcript
You’re listening to the Ghost of Dog
Speaker:on the The Voice of Dog,
Speaker:and Tonight we have a poem by Rob Macwolf,
Speaker:and you can find more of his stories and poetry
Speaker:on his sofurry page.
Speaker:Read by Dralen, the Dapper Dragonfox.
Speaker:As children we fear simple things:
Speaker:burglars, ghosts, monsters.
Speaker:As adults, our fears grow more complicated:
Speaker:personal mortality,
Speaker:rising authoritarian bigotry,
Speaker:student loans. But it is well to remember,
Speaker:as a noted sage once said,
Speaker:that in the very beginning even the simplest of children’s stories
Speaker:was about blood. Case in point, a poem about an amusing character you may remember from childhood, and all the existential dread that went unspoken.
Speaker:Please enjoy “Cheshire Cat”,
Speaker:a poem by Rob MacWolf
Speaker:The glint you glimpse may be the twilight sun
Speaker:Between the shadow trees, or on the lawn
Speaker:All unproportioned, where the wild winds run
Speaker:Grotesquely. Or it may be me,
Speaker:all gone. Beneath wide hedges, wider nothings yawn,
Speaker:And nothing’s more nothing than me.
Speaker:I fear Nothing. Nothing to see here, ma’am. Move on.
Speaker:You see me smiling,
Speaker:but I am not here.
Speaker:The behemoths are bumbling overhead. The cockroaches are stirring in the wall.
Speaker:They call it a party.
Speaker:I call it dead:
Speaker:The music sours, the clawing colors crawl.
Speaker:If you’ve some sense, and would evade it all;
Speaker:The simplest way to hide is to go clear.
Speaker:Take me. I’ve faded far too far to fall.
Speaker:You see me smiling,
Speaker:but I am not here.
Speaker:Material concerns give me no pause: Like smoke
Speaker:I slide through fingers when they clutch
Speaker:To smirk intangibly between your claws, To gloat,
Speaker:on solid you and any such.
Speaker:You cannot wound what is not there to touch.
Speaker:You can’t ignore
Speaker:what is not there to hear.
Speaker:Believe me, one cannot be gone too much.
Speaker:You see me smiling,
Speaker:but I am not here.
Speaker:My mirth is contextless.
Speaker:You cannot spell The first word of my insubstantial mood.
Speaker:I’m grimacing or grinning.
Speaker:You can’t tell; Can’t rhyme or reason me, for ill or good.
Speaker:In this world, where you can’t do as you should,
Speaker:What can you do but grin and disappear?
Speaker:Poem nonetheless,
Speaker:this is an empty wood.
Speaker:You see me smiling,
Speaker:but I am not here.
Speaker:Princess, take caution.
Speaker:If you don’t see me
Speaker:Then best assume
Speaker:that I am very near.
Speaker:But if I show my teeth, rest easily:
Speaker:You see me smiling,
Speaker:but I am not here.
Speaker:This was “Cheshire Cat”
Speaker:by Rob MacWolf, read for you by Dralen,
Speaker:the Dapper Dragonfox.
Speaker:Thank you for listening
Speaker:to The Ghost of Dog.
