I'm back with another collage in the Let's Make A Collage Community. The LMAC Community offers an opportunity for members to create and post "freestyle" collage themes. In the freestyle option, more freedom is allowed to design your creations without having to incorporate the weekly contest photo. However, contest rules still apply.
The Community also holds a weekly collage contest. If you'd like to join in, visit the contest post: Let's Make a Collage - A Contest for All Creatives on Hive - Round 230 - ✨20 HIVE in the Prize Pool!.
For my FreeStyle Collage No. 119, my theme consisted of a distraught man searching for his loved one. The title of my collage is is "In Search of Rose".
In Search of Rose
He set out. Toward the impossible. To locate the key to his love.
Rose was her name.
Unlock and lay bare the mystery of her soul she'd guarded so secretly, during the few nights of wild blissfulness.
Readying himself, he paused, then stammered when asked, "where could she have gone?"
He shook his head, reluctant to admit that the journey he was about to undertake would be difficult.
"How well did you know her, Arturo?" his brother inquired.
Rearing his head back in defiance, with blood shooting from his eyes, he hissed, "as well as required! No more, no less."
He'd answer no further questions. Cause the pain seared through his pierced heart.
Unwilling to cancel the nuptials, he set out in search of her.
Halfway, the faltered; the blazing, midday sun parching his lips.
After awhile, a stranger on his path approached. Smiling as the stranger went by, Arturo slightly nodded good day.
Ashamed to acknowledge his love he'd lost, his lips remained closed. Surely he would not have encountered his lovely Rose.
For a long moment breath wouldn't come, weary from the journey. Realizing the impossible, he scoured the landscape.
Barren. Uninhabitable. Just like my home.
He reared up. No one must ever discover the weakness within. Failure isn't an option, he lamented silently. For the whole town will laugh and shun me.
Spotting a worn trunk nearby, he decided. Respite from the heat the shade offered.
But no comfort visited that afternoon. Only the past in all its truth came rushing back, flooding his senses.
"What was my folly?" he asked of the worm inching nearby. No human concern the worm had; so it continued on its journey, for it knew where it destination lay.
Intense was the shimmering heat that grabbed her fault, and slammed his in his face. Avoidance wasn't an option.
"Why did Rose abandon me in my time of need?" he cried.
The stifling wind swirled around his nose, forcing him to don a handkerchief as it answered.
A portal opened.
You held her heart in the palm of your hands. Your Treasure. Your Love. Your Past; and Your Future.
Like an avid collector, You placed it on the shelf among your other possessions, then moved on. Walking by each day, You glance at the vibrant being that lured You to her bosom. On that fateful night, You paused to dust off the lint that had accumulated those past months.
Then, You returned the next night.
But Rose was gone. The placement holder empty.
Anger replaced sorrow, but never regret. For how dare she leave You in disarray. Despair. A provider of her needs You faithfully tended.
Did she not understand? Did she not anticipate? that You'd wither away, then crumble under the weight of loneliness,
You cried for the first time.
Deserted. No longer pulsating with that radiant glow of her embrace You'd become used to, but never reciprocated. Days stretched into months. And one day, she no longer lingered without purpose.
"But what about her?" You asked of the wind. "Surely she is not without fault!" You rebuffed.
"With every situation comes full circle a counter," the wind conceded.
You suspected, but could never confirm the lies that stirred inside the vase of illusion. Clouded in unspoken words and brief glances whenever questions about her past arose made the journey less navigable.
She'd brush them off as nonsense. "The past is the past. Let sleeping dogs lie," she'd joke. "Besides," she offered when You'd already moved on his mind, "*you may dig a hole you can't climb out of.
This nagging feeling of foreboding..
Still, the rumbling in Your loins and tugging at Your heart wouldn't subside.
Arturo jumped up from the stump with renewed determination.
I must find her and bring her home," he answered to the wind.
"Don't be surprised if Rose has mounted up with wings and flown off over the horizon to pursue her own dreams."
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I share with you my completed freestyle collage:
