Age is surely a certainty,
or so Alice had thought
after all birthdays are hardly
impossible events
arriving each year
on the same day,
as they certainly do.

But the Red Queen assured her
that certainty was unnecessary
when it came to determining age.
You are just as old as you feel
and seeing was believing anyway.

So Alice reconsidered her hypothesis.
The older one gets
the more difficult it is to know
for certain, she thought.
How can one judge the wrinkles
under make-up
or Botox.
It was impossible to be certain.

Really, she decided
as she looked through
her looking glass,
age should become one of the six
impossible things to believe
before breakfast.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net,  and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn at: Poetry – Lynn White and Facebook .