in the dank cellar
a distillation of fear
seeps from dusty vials
moulding into the vile
tang of pink plastic
with its sardonic
grin
staring
with marbly
eyes that blink
knowingly
in quirky
silent
movie
motion
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
– Andre Govia
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge #139 and shared on Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform
writing in north norfolk 
Bodies need to be found for these beautiful doll heads from the 1950s
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Oh no! Just the heads terrify me – bodies would mean they could move!
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Ha ha and I collect old dolls like that to remind me of my childhood where I wanted such intensely
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That’s the beauty of us all being different – I’m not afraid of things that petrify others, for example spiders.
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I like where you explored with this one Kim, nicely done.
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Thank you, Michael. I really do have a phobia of dolls: porcelain, rubber, plastic, ventriloquists’ dummies. I’m OK with soft toys, though! Just the hard core ones scare the pants off me!
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spine tingling lines that give body to those beheaded dolls
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Thanks for reading, Laura. I think I’m going to be haunted by that picture.
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Babies left alone in the dank cellar did leave a creepy feeling more so without limbs. It was just not fair!
Your lines went very well with the pic!
Hank
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Thank you, Hank! As I admitted to Michael, I am truly terrified of dolls! As a child, I was taken to visit a great aunt who had a piano in her parlour that was jealously guarded by large Victorian china dolls. I so loved playing that piano but was too scared to be alone with the dolls!
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You do make them seem quite scary!
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🙂
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goodness..scary!!
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🙂
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Scary indeed, I read a part of it normally and the rest with some weird background score in the back of my mind from those scary movies with dolls…
Nice one!🙂
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Now that’s what we need here, a choice of suitable music to go with the poems and short stories!
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Don’t think I want to go into the basement with you!
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I don’t want to go into the basement with me!
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Wonderfully creepy! 🙂
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🙂
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Why are old dolls so creepy??
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Any dolls are creepy as far as I’m concerned. Old ones just freak me out completely!
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Ooh, this creepylicious!
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I’m so pleased I managed to give you the chills!
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Ever since the Twilight Zone episode with Telly Savalis dolls creep me out. “a distillation of fear” is a good line.
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No! I’ve not seen that one, than goodness!
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Oh those old dolls with china heads always, always creeped me out — my Aunt used to have a “doll room” when I was growing up, and it was always given to me to stay in when visiting. I don’t think she knew that instead of delighting me, they haunted me….you’ve captured that feeling here!
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Oh no – a doll room! We once viewed a property with one of those and it was a no as soon as I saw it!
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Yeah I have the creeps
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Then my job is done😨
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Marvelous!
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😎
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Finding those doll heads in the cellar would be startling!
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I’m glad I don’t have a cellar!
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The dark side of dolls, you dared, and came up with a skillfully written piece
much love…
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Thsanks Gillena! Hope you’re having a great day. Kim xxx
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Those doll heads remind me of Bluebeard… creepy.
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I imagined some vintage Malibu Barbies before I saw your photo.
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😊
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Oh, good grief! I’d get rid of those real fast! Creepy! Perfectly penned.
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Thanks Margaret!
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I used to love dolls, but their plastic faces and unchanging eyes are too haunting for me now. Great expression of the creepiness they hold.
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I’ve always had a fear of dolls, even when I was little. I preferred soft toy teddy bears and dogs. Couldn’t even stand drag dolls until my daughter had a Cabbage Patch doll and I had to get used to it!
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