Fantasy: Inability To Do Arithmetic… Poem by Margaret Alice

The Gryphon took Alice to the Mock Turtle
who told her: At school we were taught
Reeling and Writhing and Arithmetic in
different branches: Ambition, Distraction,
Uglification and Derision – the Gryphon
added: I studied Mystery, Ancient and
Modern, and Seaography; an old conger-
eel taught Drawling as well as Stretching
and Fainting in Coils – the Mock Turtle
continued: an old crab taught the Classics –
Laughing and Grief – and our lessons
lessened from day to day… Alice was
quite overcome by what the two
creatures said… and I conclude that
my inability to do Arithmetic must
stem from the time I first read Alice
in Wonderland…