My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Writing Prompt #171 “Collage 27”
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly” is a quote from Charles Addams
On the wings of a summer buzz,
a fly alights on a white corona,
wrapped in the acrid aroma
of Queen Anne’s lace.
The sun dapples my legs and face,
reminding me of other summer days.
Time is suspended,
a pretty clock on an ornate chain,
and I wish I could go back again,
this time to a normal childhood,
where I am well-behaved and good,
a child who works hard and doesn’t lie,
when I am the spider not the fly.
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
I love that closing
Where I am the spider and not fly
brilliant!!!
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Thanks! That’s kind of how I felt when I was a kid.
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A very heartfelt write, I really enjoyed the way you made the poem rhyme. Combined with your imagery and answers, it reminds me of a nursery rhyme.
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Thank you for reading and for your kind comments!
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I like to way it speaks. It has nice mix of nostalgia and innocence.
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A very condensed poem with the photos. Thank you. You said it all in few words
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Thank you for reading!
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I love how you would turn back time. I can’t imagine you being a “normal” child but I can imagine you being a whimsical and a changeling child. I admire how you made this poem rhyme. I admire anyone who can make a poem rhyme.
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Smiles!
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A story to be told in those last five lines. I think I should like to be neither the spider nor the fly … perhaps a colorful leaf floating by … I always admire your work, Kim.
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Beverly I love your response here and agree, maybe you could be neither…
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Thank you so much, Bev.
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A beautiful write Kim, it goes so well with the imagery and I love how you suspend time at the heart of it all 🙂💖 xxx
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Thank you, Xenia! 🙂 xxx
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The sunlight dappling the grass and bare legs, what we remember of childhood, often very similar things and maybe all children want to be the same too.
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I think you’re right, Jane.
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🙂
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Such whimsey attached to heartfelt probes. So many things seem illusionary–equality, justice, truth. I liked the brevity and rhythm of this.
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Thanks Glenn.
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Love the quote, and I love the tie in to the image itself. Wonderful Kim!
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Wonderful rhyme scheme and rhythm. I wish you could turn time back and have the childhood you dream of.
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Thank you so much, Jade.
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You are very welcome, Kim.
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How imaginative Kim. I too long for those carefree days of the past.
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I must be related to Peter Pan – I never wanted to grow up.
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I love the longing and perspective.
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Thank you!
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I love your reflections of going back in this one. Very nostalgic!
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Thank you, Dwight!
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The mind wanders in the dog days of summer. This captures the way thoughts travel. (K)
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My thoughts have numerous paths of their own at the moment!
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I like how you compared the spider and the fly and associated a normal childhood with the spider.
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Thanks Frank.
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Very apt description of that kind of a childhood that many can identify with. Powerful poem.
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Thank you, Victoria.
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Ahh, those summer days…wonderfully described and gave me that feeling of slow, lazy summer. Your turn made me wish you could have your wish!
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Thank you, Jennifer!
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It’s a surprising twist — the fly seems so happily intoxicated there on the Queen Anne’s lace (gorgeous image) — lulling the speaker to remember childhood not as it was but it might have been. Odd gift, then, from the fly, blessing the speaker with sympathies for the devil … still we hang there, considering, blessed by the careful constructions and weaving of rhyme.
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Cheers Brendan.
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yes, what a spin in the final line ~
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Thanks Michael!
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Oh Kim, this is a beautiful write! Yes, what we all believe we would likely do differently, if given the chance. But then, cliché as it might sound — we would not be who we are now, and this would not be our life. To embrace another cliché, in the end, we truly must be wary of what we wish for.
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Thank you, Rob.
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LOVE this! It’s kind of wistful and whimsical at the same time 🙂
And oh….there is so much in the title. As we age, “normal” changes. I’ve always said, “Normal is simply a setting on a dryer.”
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Thank you, Lill! 😉
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