JAE ROSE

For dverse 15/10/25

Today, I ask you to write a poem about some version of the headless horseman. It’s your chance to escape reality. Base your poem on one of the folktales or create your own tale or urban legend.

Poetics: Hold Onto Your Head!

Headless

Off with their heads, bellows the Red Queen

And we giggle

There is no way she can claim our head now 

It is ours and firmly fixed on 

We have learnt the tricks of Wonderland 

And come out the other side

Ready for adventures on the warm, grassy lands of above

Of course we were robbed along the way 

By time and its every turning hands 

And experiences dark and grey

But here we are newly formed and growing

Alive in our head, blossoming like the sweetest lily

We wave at the highway man on our path

We all steal things on our journeys – 

Words, ideas, treasures and thoughts

Like little magpies shifting through jigsaw pieces

Trying to form a picture – one we can behold

And say – we made that

Pieced fragments into a whole

I reach my fingers to her rosy red cheeks

They glow and blush, feel warm and tender 

I am glad we are together –

In spirit, form and love

Our head firmly fixed on.