Illustration by Sir John Tenniel, first published in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, 1871
Drenching Rains
Each hard drop shimmers pearl gray,
spills on earth as if some god's lachrymosity,
splashes ground transformed to little trolls.
They coalesce in puddles —
muddied runoff ogre'ing fog enshrouded
brook meandering
through the woods — this rill of liquid
monsters — seeping into dirt
umbrella'd by the Trillium,
variegated and palmate green.
Over forest floor, into the roots,
the water spirits of the trolls absorb:
Up and through each stem — the xylem
and the phloem — into every leafy cell
they flow, diffuse their evil. Transfigure
into jabberwocky woods to terrorize the gnomes.
But do the changling trolls know
their unsuspecting prey
come armed with vorpal swords today?
They will quench the drenching rains.
by John C. Mannone