poisons get on everything

deep cuts and
shallow

and just there, on the skin

Did you know that nothing that looks like a blackberry can be poisonous?

raspberry either. Something about the shape. That’s how you can tell these things.

Protection as embrace of familiar thorns

There are so many things in this world that look nothing like a blackberry

Like ivy
Like mistletoe
Like yew

Between yew, me, and the lamppost, I’ve known more poison than
most.
many
few.

We hoard tight our tragedies, plundered, poisonous gold. Breath fire on those who have dared suggest the antidote is to let it all go. pillars of gentle, insistent support. wrap ourselves tight in our paralyzed

breath

gasp

forget

You learn a lot from other people’s stories where the poison berries lie.

I heard that if you tell a dragonfly’s secret, it will sew your mouth shut
is it the gossip that starves you?

Or if you forget yourself, stain your lips purple with guarded fruit,
the lie?