Photo of the Week: Swamp Thing

Here is a photo of the swampy area near a river behind my mother's house in Upstate New York, where I spent the holiday weekend (at her house, not in the swamp). My nephew escorted me to this godforsaken spot so we could snap a glamorously lachrymose picture. This is a lonely, eerie place where hideous monsters live and unspeakable crimes occur -- or at least that's what I imagined as a child. Actually, its inhabitants are woodchucks, leeches, reeds, deformed trees, and skunk cabbages, the latter of which you can see in the foreground. These plants are named for the odor they give off at close range in the summer, though they give off no such foul emanations at this time of year.

Click the photo to experience an overwhelming feeling of dread and melancholy, worthy of an ode by Edgar Allan Poe.