Her mind was compressed, beaten down for a while.
Filled to the brim with such horrible feelings,
That stuck to the walls and hung from the ceilings.
Seeping out through her mouth like blackened bile,
Her mind was a landfill, stacked high with trash piles.
Mounds that were made by people, unfeeling.
Strength from her body and mind, they were stealing.
A verminous Lily of the Nile*.
Her mind was at ease, once the meds kicked in.
It had filled with life, no longer compressed;
The thoughts in her head corroded and thinned.
Within each and every line, it was pinned:
“You cannot come in, you cannot infest.”
Her mind and her soul could now be with the wind.
*Lily of the Nile: A flowering plant species that is “pest-hardy, neither being much attacked nor drastically affected by common garden pests. However, since the early 21st century Agapanthus in the far south of South Africa have fallen victim to a species of Noctuid moth... The larvae of the moth bore into the budding inflorescence and as they mature they tunnel down towards the roots, or emerge from the stem and drop down to feed on the leaves or rhizomes. A severe attack promotes rot and may stunt or even kill the plant; even plants that survive commonly lose most of their inflorescences and fail to produce the desired show of flowers.”
Introduction to Poetry 
Oct 30, 2014 @ 16:35:17
I really enjoyed this sonnet because the meaning has to be slowly sucked out of it. You have to stop and ponder the allegory of the lily of the Nile and read the poem and go into a deeper analysis. This is not surface level which makes it stand out. I have never heard of this type of flower so that caught my attention immediately. Very sophisticated and well written. I like how you portrayed the idea of how something once indestructible could too be destroyed. The landfill metaphor is odd when you are comparing a person to a flower. That comparison also jumped out at me and made me reconnect different connotations in my head.
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Oct 31, 2014 @ 06:29:23
I liked how your poem was, in a way, shaped around the Lily of the Nile. By comparing the infection of this flower by the noctuid moth to the “infection” that the speaker has, you are subtly incorporating a simile into your sonnet. You used great imagery throughout your poem to show just how sick the speaker is as well. Great sonnet.
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Oct 31, 2014 @ 18:31:24
This is a hauntingly beautiful sonnet. Really excellent job. Your volta in line 9 is incredibly effective and, to be honest, somewhat terrifying. Not only does your volta do an excellent job shifting tone, it also marks a very different approach to your writing. I would recommend that you go through lines 1-7 with a fine toothed comb to make sure your style is very consistent and then do the same with 9-14 to make sure their style is consistently different.
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