Julianna Feit
Ophelia lay atop the river bed,
a broken willow branch in her pale palm.
So beautiful and cold, she moved no more.
Her story of a timeless struggle had been said
to be a preaching parable, a grieving psalm
of Mad Ophelia sunk atop the river bed.
Decades since Ophelia and her woe were wed,
the muse became reborn in paint. A model donned
the trope: too beautiful and cold to move anymore.
The tortured double in her noble’s stead
floated inside the artist’s tub with her visage calm.
She portrayed Ophelia lain atop the river bed.
As the artist’s focus pulled upon her head,
he was blinded to candles dead below the woman drawn.
The tub was cold. She dared not move once more.
As numbness flood her quiet limbs with dread,
at last the model grasped her classic qualm:
Oh, Ophelia drowned escaping men atop the river bed.
The lost beauty gained cold control. She’s moved by them no more.
Julianna (Julz) Feit is a sophomore Radio/Television/Film and Anthropology double major from New Jersey. They’ll usually say yes to any opportunity, especially if the opportunity is “do you want to pet my dog?”
