Poem: Anaesthetic

Sep 04, 2013, updated Mar 17, 2025

Poet Judy Dally, who is celebrating 25 consecutive years of publication in the annual Friendly Street Reader, takes a trip down the rabbit hole of an anaesthesia-induced Wonderland.

Anaesthetic

I fell, like Alice
through a crack in time
not awake to navigate
the rabbithole turns
and twists

Oblivious to
the knife slice
the needle prick
the invisible stitches

A cold cut
on the Mad Hatter’s table
a dormouse
asleep in the teapot

Until
in a shard of light
the white queen
stood  beside my bed
and welcomed me back
to the Wonderland
of the living.

Judy Dally has been a board member of the SA Writers’ Centre, and committee member and co-editor for the Friendly Street Poetry Group. Her latest joint project with the latter was its Reader No. 36, launched at Writers’ Week 2012.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.