“The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party begins in a village” by Shadab Hashmi (poetry, ’09)

An excerpt from the poem, “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party begins in a village,” by Shadab Hashmi (poetry, ’09) published at Leveler Poetry:

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party begins in a village

of Assam, which takes the shape of a spy

glass spinning. Failed voyagers drool from afar.

The hatter grins at turbans wrapped this way

and that— treacle wells won’t ever run dry.

Tea hands, quick, dark and delicate, pick leaves

while the dormouse dozes, sugar cubes drop

into porcelain, English riddles the many Indian tongues,

while William Gladstone, four times prime minister

under Queen Victoria, fills his wee

hours with a hot water bottle of boiling Assam […continue reading here]