My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge #116
She felt herself shrinking
In a forest of demented trees
Monochrome like barcodes
From a neurodegenerative disease.
She felt a rage erupting
That mutated into delusion,
Dived deep into strange faces,
Emerging in confusion.
She couldn’t remember the way
Along paths she’d often trod
But familiar walks were haunted
By monsters, mice and gods.
With trembling hands and shuffling feet,
She was not in her perfect mind,
Queen Lear embraced each shadowy tree,
Until body, bark and branches intertwined.
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
ScarletteDeath on DeviantArt
writing in north norfolk 
That last line gave me the shivers after that vivid lead up. Really well done, Kim
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Thank you so much! 🙂
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There are several nice lines here. “Diving deep into strange faces” really speaks to me. Really adds despiration to her plight
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I have to admit reference to Lear and demented do run together but I did have to go and look up Queen Lear and found a reference to a production of Lear where Lear is female, just as mad as the male version.
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I would like to see more female Lears – they remind me of my mother. She also has three daughters – I am the oldest but no Goneril!
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That is a relief Kim
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“Until body, bark and branches intertwined.” ~woah! Gripping piece so nicely written. ❤
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Thank you, Maria 🙂
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Insightful description of mental illness…great take on the image!
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I loved the poem, I love the heaviness of words, woven through the ease of rhyme (at least it felt like that to me!). Striking imagery and haunting sceneries, I like the personification, the mingling of cores of nature with what is inside us humans.
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Thank you for reading and for your kind comments.
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