Wonderland by Jayla Nickens-Gill
The students were tasked to “picture yourself in Wonderland.” The prompts included the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was inspired by a child’s nursery school drawing and the imagery of “Alice in Wonderland.” We are featuring three very different approaches to the topic. Jayla takes us (and two of her fellow students) down the rabbit hole. Rhys considers it from the perspective of a real world trek to reach America from Colombia. And Kendall reminds us that Wonderland is always within us. WONDERLAND Sitting in the classroom, my head felt light. I closed my eyes and started thinking. A few minutes later I hear this ticking. I try to ignore it, but the ticking continues. I pick up my head, everyone is gone, and this white, ugly, red-eyed rabbit is staring at me. It looks down at its ticking clock, then at me, and runs off. I run after the rabbit. We get to a park, and he jumps down a hole. It reminds me of the movie “Alice in Wonderland.” However, when I jumped down the hole, my trip wasn’t as slow or as nice as Alice. I smashed into a piano, dislocated my finger, and slammed into the ground. “Damn gang, why you land like that?” Karla says “What you mean? You acting like this a regular thing” I said “You saw that rabbit too huh? He threw a rock at me, next thing I know I’m spiraling down this hole” Karla explains “Anyone else down here?” “Kendall, but she ain’t see the rabbit, she was walking and fell into the hole” “Where...
