Bring me cocaine and laudanum,
opium dens and delirium.
Bring me to the 19th century
when men dancing madly with the green fairy
supped on thickly intoxicating drinks
and smoked from oriental dragons’ pipes;
where artists roamed the attics of their minds;
poets raced down the hallways of their souls
and the age of innocence still thrived.
I want the laws turned back to the other side
to the time before sublime became crime
and habitual sanctuary was denied.
Now the last wisps of heady perfume
can only be found in a desolate room.
With no pupils, old masters are museums unheard
but I still want what is unoffered.
Please take me to what I will never know.
Let me smoke with Wilde and drink with Van Gogh.
Let me be lost in the midst of bohemian dreams
and swim through green clouds under sugared spoons.
Introduce me to Alice and the pompous caterpillar
so I may live on the balmy side of the mirror.

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Jenn Brock is a writer by both nature & nurture. Southern by raising, she now calls the Midwest her home, where she resides with her husband & their feline pride.