Just to clarify, before I begin, the writing in italics was written by Lewis Carroll and not me. The beginning is from "Alice in Wonderland" and the poem, "A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky" was written in "Through the Looking Glass".
The Beginning...
"Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life and the happy summer days."
Alice closed the book and looked down at her daughter. Charlotte seemed to have just drifted off to sleep. Alice smiled and put the book down quietly on the bedside table, leaning to kiss her child's forehead. A quiet breeze ruffled the curtains and Alice walked over to close it slightly. The murmur of the stream outside reached her ears and glinted in the light of the setting sun.
A boat beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July.
Alice pulled the window too slightly and looked back at the little girl asleep in the bed. She smiled, and walked across the room, turning off the light she had been using to read the story to her daughter and went to leave. Charlotte was the youngest, she had two other daughters and all three of them liked to hear her stories.
Children three that nestle near
Eager eye and willing ear
Pleased a simple tale to hear.
"Mummy." The little voice spoke from out of the semi-dark, light still pouring through the window from behind the curtain. Alice turned to see that Charlotte had opened her eyes and was watching her closely. Alice smiled at her.
"What is it, Charlotte?" she asked, turning back and sitting on the edge of the bed beside her daughter.
"What was it like?" she asked.
"What was what like?"
"Wonderland," replied the child, looking up at her mother. Alice smiled.
"Odd," she said. "Nothing was ever what it seems."
"Did you ever go back?" Alice smiled and shook her head.
"No," she said. "No, I didn't."
"Did you ever want to?" Alice considered.
"Maybe," she said. "But it's too long now." Alice shivered with slight cold and walked over to the window to close it.
Long has paled that sunny sky
Echoes fade and memories die
Autumn frosts have slain July.
"I think you still could." Alice smiled and looked back around at Charlotte, who had sat up again to watch her mother. Alice came back over and sat on the bed.
"You are so much like me in some ways, Charlotte," she said. "Now sleep. You could go to Wonderland yourself in my place." She kissed her forehead. "Now go to sleep." She stood up again, but Charlotte spoke again.
"Mummy?"
"Yes, darling?"
"What can you see behind the looking glass?"
Still she haunts me, phantomwise
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Alice looked back to her daughter feeling confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked, looking puzzled.
"Can you see the room behind the looking glass?" asked Charlotte again. Alice smiled. Of course. Charlotte was definitely a lot like her.
"Do you mean the one that looks exactly like this one but the other way around?" she asked. She thought back to her life as a child when she had thought of going through the looking glass. It was interesting. In fact the looking glass that hung on the wall inside her daughter's room was from the house she had lived in as a child. Alice remembered talking to one of Dinah's kittens about it when she was Charlotte's age. Sometimes she'd say that she wished that she could pass right through into the looking glass world. She'd never actually done it though.
Children yet, the tale to hear
Eager eye and willing ear
Lovingly shall nestle near.
But surprisingly, Charlotte shook her head.
"No," she said. "There's another room. Look, Mummy." Alice crossed over to the looking glass and looked into it. "What can you see, Mummy?"
"Well," said Alice. "I see you, and the bed, me of course, the bedside table, the lamp and Mr. Carroll's book..."
"No, the other room," said Charlotte. "Can you see it?" Alice looked back and sighed. Then she saw the room changing. The room that now was before her was a reflection of the room of which the mirror had hung before: the looking glass room from when she was a child with all its old furniture, the chess set, the book case and even down to the little clock on the mantelpiece. But none of this was as amazing as the girl who smiled back at Alice from the mirror.
"The girl in the looking glass world... is it you, Mummy?" Alice nodded in response to her daughter and the little Alice nodded with her. "Is the looking glass world like Wonderland, Mummy?" Alice smiled.
"It could be," she said. "I've never been." Charlotte looked curious.
"Why not go?" she asked.
In a Wonderland they lie
Dreaming as the days go by
Dreaming as the summers die.
Alice smiled and shook her head.
"I don't think I can anymore," she sighed. "I'm too old for the Wonderland and worlds of a child's mind."
"But you are special, Mummy," said Charlotte. "You've been to Wonderland. You could go to the looking glass world if you want."
"Charlotte..."
"Try, Mummy, try," the girl pleaded. Alice looked at the little Alice in the mirror and the world she had missed out on as a child. She laid her hand against the glass, but it stayed solid.
Ever drifting down the stream...
"Try, Mummy!" Alice pressed harder against the glass. It was not going to let her through. She was too old now. She had grown up too much.
Lingering in the golden gleam...
"Try." Little Alice in the mirror had mouthed the word with her and Alice suddenly felt renewed. Yes. Charlotte was right. She could go through that mirror if she wanted, into the looking glass world. She was always Alice and had been to Wonderland. One looking glass would not stop her. Alice closed her eyes and wished, as the glass misted beneath her fingers.
Life...
She took a breath and put her hand through into the other Alice's open hand.
...what is it...
She slipped through the glass and felt at once like a child again.
...but a dream?
Alice opened her eyes... She'd done it.