Diana Whitney

Nightshade

When the potato turns green
it’s poison       Behold my glossy peppers

my aubergine jewels       my ruby
tomatoes hanging fat
on the vine       

Don’t think you can trespass
in my garden & slip away clean       No one

walks out of a fairytale unscathed

Cross me once & I’ll summon
a cold spell       Cross me twice
& I’ll bind you in bittersweet       knotweed       

dig up the daffodil bulbs like onions
& slice them for your supper       

Stir hemlock root with the wishbone
of a sick hen & the scant mist
of a new moon      
Even the honey
of azalea burns the mouth
with its resin       

In high doses       expect euphoria
hallucination              the sensation of flying
darkening

into a soundless coma

If you were seeking pleasure
or mercy       you crawled through
the wrong hedgerow       

Swallow your apologia       Taste my
dark purple bells       Bite 

these shiny black
berries of wrath & repair

Back to Issue XIV…