House

House

written by: Jenny Thomas

@authorjcthomas

why is this house so still in my mind

but when I see it clearly it is not? the bricks don’t

move though the paint may peel and the glass might smash it is sure to

stay in the exact same spot is it not? last night I dreamed I went to manderley

again but the                  house I came across was not              like that at

all as it was                    high up on a hill and battered                  by the

wind and withered to its frame and stripped to its bones with no one inside

but my voice echoed anyway as I tried to understand why this house had

been left to decay for         it was once a part of me            and I could see

myself reflected in                its yellowness and                    why does it now

resemble satis house? i question the thorns and the weeds that spiral like gustav

and peer through hostile                                      spikes whose paint is curling

like rumpelstiltskin’s                                          fingernails supported by jutting

stones and ancient slabs like                                  elsinore shot in black and white

and strict architectural                                             beams that slice through ceilings

and doors left open and                                           windows broken and dust an inch

thick too dense to clean                                           and I scream into nothingness

because this house                                                         seems so far away

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

A shaped poem in the style of Jan D. Hodge

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Jenny Thomas

Jenny's debut novel, Awakening Worlds, is an eco-fantasy novel. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of the West of England in 2011. She spent two semesters abroad at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, USA. This is where she began writing Awakening Worlds. She recently graduated with an MA in Comparative Literatures and Cultures from the University of Bristol. In her early twenties, she volunteered at a school for disadvantaged Burmese youth. There, she led creative writing and drama workshops. She also worked as a teaching assistant in an Aboriginal Community School in the Kimberley desert, Western Australia. She teaches English online by day and writes fiction and poetry by night. She is currently working on a novella to be released in 2021.

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