Mock Orange

As dusk devours the landscape, so too does an eerie, haunting sensation consume me. A peculiar plant prevents my further passage to the safety of my home, with its gaunt arms of green and grayish-brown taunting me to come nearer. A chill brushes over me, and the shrub rustles with a sinister whisper, and I am certain it is mocking me. Under the glinting of moonlight, its limbs bend and sway with a heckling gesture – as if carrying some phantom fruits, which I cannot see and perchance were never there for the offering. A creeping madness descends upon my mind as I am tormented by the unrelenting mockery of this unworldly sedge and, yet,…am unable to escape its ghostly gaze.

Words and images of Michael J. Hall