It's Still Life

At an Intersection Named After an English King and a Saint
Six Sentence Story: 1964: The Nature of Things: Part 32.3

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1964 Stromstad: The Summer of Wolfsbane

… and I’m afraid of the Jabberwocky because nobody can tell me what it is, and also Wolfsbane because it makes your brain think you’re flying, and Grandmother fingers through dried leaves and blossoms in a long wooden box with the red sliding panel top, and she says…

“Learn which plants will kill you so you can eat what won’t,” and fear makes me afraid of what I don’t know.

WOLFSBANE (MONKSHOOD) ACONITE

Blossoms: 5 petals; purple or white, soft as snow; ghostly thin; a monk’s hood; caustic; pungent; nostril-raw … your last word ever heard.

Leaves: Rough as medieval cilice; canned pea green; a palm with fingers; toothy edges; bites; pins and needles; alternates on stem … death’s breath.

Sap: From the mouth of Cerberus; blisters; bitter; numbing; a headful of hammers; an earful of bees; black tongue; flying (witch’s weed) … oh, let me fly up high.

Roots: Little feet creeping on creaking knees; nodes; roiling heat; rolls thunder across your heart; aconite … you’ll wonder why you’re 6-foot under, and

…each day I am less fearful of what I know.

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Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story including the word “panel”.  Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2024.