From a glance she looked perfect,
beautifully poised, and pretty.
But as I got closer. I found her unkept.
Unruly. Unkind. A writhing creature of neglect.

She stood, sucking lives away, 
leaving carnage in her hellish wake. 
Stealing sustenance from the soil beneath her
grasping at all living creatures to satiate her hunger.

Yet nothing could fulfil her.
Her body, a void, a vacuum; insidious and seductive…
But as I stood and stared, silently suspicious; 
It became clear…her environment had made her vicious. 

It has shaped her into what she was not,
turning her into a monster, the definition of destruction.
Put in a place where her surroundings were known,
She no longer lashed out with poisonous roots, utterly alone.

In her native land, where she felt safe to just be,
she grew purposefully, peacefully, practising her ways. 
No one thought she was a pest, or a foreign plague.
She never desired to end up in this outlandish place.

But external forces…likely those of men and their:
actions, inaction, pride or pompous ways. 
Led to her portrayal as a bewitching beast.
Who found death to be her sustenance, her feast

Yet all she was doing was just surviving.

Words inspired by Stella Yu’s entire exhibition, including images and artist’s statement. View the full collection and artist's statement here.