(300): Bringing Out the Dark Shapes in the Alabama Woods

Betta Tryptophan
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

Artistic sensibilities learned while driving on rural county roads in Lee County, Alabama long ago…

All right, so it’s Jamaica…same sensibility though, in color. Image by Midnight Believer via Flickr. Image cropped. Public domain.

Green vines so thick they turn black,

Shading the wall of the house,

Spreading over the interloper —

The house that barely civilized the wilderness.

Abandoned any time from a year to a century ago,

Who can tell, for it has returned to its roots,

Its tendrils, leaves, and berries —

Shaded foliage canopy turned black,

A cave for wild animals,

Natural habitat once again.

We drove by it flippantly,

Calling it our dream home,

Dreaming of its past life —

The fancy of a modern 1950’s housewife

Or a 1930’s runaway teen who wanted her own real life.

It is faded into a countryside curiosity,

An art project for an eccentric small town artist

Who photographs it, tinting significant surfaces.

It is now folklore, the nature-directed vines

Driving the living representation of country life —

All gray with pink highlights,

Like a pretentious college town promotional brochure.


Image same as above, modified a little bit…

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Betta Tryptophan

Written by

Blue-haired middle-aged lady with a tendency to say socially and politically incorrect things and to make inappropriate jokes. Awkward and (sort of) proud of it

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