“I wish I could erase you,”
is what I said, the words spat like venom.
Spat like the poison in my veins.
He knew it was in my wine,
the belladonna that’s ruined my eyes.
There’s two of him, two broken smiles.
Did he want to kill me?
Did they force him?
“I wish you didn’t fall for me,” he croaked to my dying body.
And as I died, as sweet life
slipped between my fingers
like a fleeing butterfly,
his last words to me were;
“I would never erase you.”
As strangleweeds ghost life manifestly,
caused by an Atropa belladonna
exposé mind-bending, marijuana
bears parallel outcomes, yet, it's deathly,
Greek myth Atropos cuts the thread of life
belladonna, a woman of beauty ...
Italian. If eaten, highly deadly,
or plant scrapes open cut, certain wildlife
are unaffected by its consumption ...,
pupil highlighters, cosmetic usage
and medicinal, named Deadly Nightshade
an earmark for historical function,
for it enhances the beauty facials,
and in parts of the world for medicals.
Good night, old friend.
Hush and sleep.
I’m here as long as we can pretend.
Even after you leave.
If pain is a gateway to the soul,
then my dreams deem your words the key to such a portal
I just can’t tear my eyes away
your blunt nails puncturing skin, their purpose ugly lines
If I could I would rasp a scripted farewell
envelop the spirits you trapped here frame to frame
but the jeers swimming in your Cheshire smile bleed a crimson too real
maybe I should rejoice, this house now a home – not a belladonna field.
But it never will be unlike a cage
twenty years, two decades, one fear, no apology
a few tears won’t erase the scars on her arms
you the forefront, I the ignorant, and she the child in Omelas
I’m terrified I’m grieving a vile sadist
the people surrounding me either love or hate, curse or forgive,
they don’t understand what it’s like
to miss someone so soul-crushingly cruel.
With the moonlight shines her beauty
Running parallel is her grace
Exuberant is her vibrance
But with trickery, she is laced
As dangerous as she is poisonous
Even more so
she is ravenous
Yet still He hungers for a taste
He thought her lips were like cherries
In truth, they are Lucifer’s berries
Now he finds himself delirious
Every part of her belonging to he
The Devil's Deadly Lady
Beauty within toxicity
So be wary of her touch
For death be its cost
Oh, belladonna, deadly bloom,
Potent in your smile,
Bold, the dew-drops in your eyes,
Bewitching in their guile
Blazing with a brazen nerve,
Your irises aspire
To burn the embers of your fire
In flames of our desire –
Deal your deadly night of shade
Let it, with stealth, conceal
Your flower fruited to appeal
– A thief set out to steal
Dispense your tonic potion,
In lethal doses drip
Your biting kiss upon our lips
– A bite we can't resist
Oh, beautiful lady, femme fatale,
Seductive in design,
Your bite of berry, toxic wine,
Is not the glory we divined
Your deadly nightshade, deadly guise,
Which takes our breath away,
Reveals in beauty's masquerade
A belladonna that betrays
Lavish wicked exile
Florid amends futile
Beware o’ noxious veins
Fatal nature remains
Faultless lulling bell
Malign lethal quell
Belladonna most fair
Nary mercy to spare
Lavender-hued bane
Deceit assured reign
Hush now carnal lilt
Expiry nigh upon wilt
Ne’er partake blithe sip
Toxic upon mortal lip
Alas formidable jane
Elixir harbors chicane
Quietly among the shade there lay another of the young gone astray
Tempted by the caress and whisper of the deadly mistress Belladonna
Tricks and traps splayed by ghostly furs
Continue to lead innocence to their graves
In efforts to transform the predators into prey
The trees
They live in this forest
They whisper they breathe
Wanderers can speak to the leaves
Often times seeking advice
For wandering into this forest
Many don’t think twice
Seemingly there be peace among the green
Lures adventurers not so keen
Lingers shadows of mischief unseen
But the trees they tell the tales
Just like men sitting around drinking old ales
If ever found without direction
One only needs to stop and listen
For the trees will make the connection
Either to lead the soul back home or drive them deeper into the dark unknown
In this forest it is for the trees to decide
Who is worthy of their time
Fate is determined by the heart
Sincerity of the question
Is meant to teach important lessons
Determined by the trees
These answers come with ease
Either leading the soul back home
Or deeper into the dark unknown
A demure damsel, her prussian blue eyes.
I astray all blurred, in subtle catalyze.
High cheek bones, beneath her caramel hair.
My purple veins pulse, in red wanton flare.
The pretty Belladonna smiles in cold blood,
Venom frolic my veins, they wilt in lava flood.
Extravagance of heaven, in blink of an hour,
I see lavender and lilac, in the toxic purple flower.
(Belladona in Italian means "beautiful lady",
it is also a harmless looking poisonous plant with
purple flowers,.known as the deadly nightshade)
19th January, 2019
Submitted to Kevin Shaw Purple poetry contest
With lies you tried to hide your furtive eyes~
but breadcrumbs left impressions you betrayed,
and finding out the truth behind your guise
did shatter loving life that we portrayed.
Through multi-colored shards of memories;
the fierceness of reflections makes me bleed
from humble heart, life-stealing reveries
now crush me like a centipede stampede.
Your fangs were poisonous a thousand bites,
so nonchalant you stabbed me with your sins.
You buried me in shallow grave of smites,
alone, ascetic life for me begins.
My appetite in apathy, man-made;
in belladonna berries love was paid.
Susan Ashley
January 28, 2018
~ Second Place ~
Contest: English Sonnet Lost Love
Sponsor: John Hamilton
*Required words: Furtive, Nonchalant, Humble, Shallow, Ascetic*
O BELLADONNA AMARYLLIS!
Lovely petals in bloom
A bride and a groom
A honeysuckle room
a tiny seed
Gathering the sheaves
Greenback leaves
For her folded sleeves
a watered seed
Rosewater wife
Healthy strife
A perfect life
a split pea
A former bach*
Time tick tock
Pregnant frock
naked ladies breathe
~ 6/29/2017 ~
Rhyme Form
Belladonna Amaryllis -
also known as Naked Ladies
Bach - bachelor - pronounced “batch”
Cry belladonna, belladonna cry.
Crocodile tears, belladonna eyes.
Time stands still when she's on the move...
Catch her in my ear, crying for the moon.
I see you in my dreams
An unravelled seam,
A faded place,
Struggling to resurface,
An irrefutable alteration in my life's plan,
Branded and irrevocable throughout my lifespan
Leaving tear-stained cheekbones
And whispered tones
Depthless emptiness in my trembling heart
Trails of scar tissue as you depart
Stilling the voices in my melancholic mind,
Memory I see has truly been unkind
For here you were and here you are not
My heart and my soul remains besot
As I glide through the mires and murky without care,
Your cruelty has erased my concept of fear,
There is no life in these arms to reach forth,
No craving or wanting to be sought,
If there is a thing to cure what is ailing me,
Darkness dictates that even that will fail me.
As I draw my last breath.
I kiss her lips and wait.
I watch the carnival of lost souls.
Watch them all in their caravan.
On my weak body, I lay her hand.
How we laughed and played thru
the meadows of our heaven.
Though I have faith in the night.
My tear filled skin is soaked to the bone.
Love should not be if it feels like this.
I should let the devil dance upon my grave.
"If it is true I never see you in the light of day again.
I shall be lost to the darkness forever more.
Belladonna, my love, do not leave me now.
I cannot bare to lose you this day.
There would be no life in this body.
If I did not have your love and kindness
bestowed upon me.
9/ 6/ 2013 Fri listening to gothic music
Belladonna is Latin for “beautiful lady”.
Belladonna,
the mask of leaves,
I wear you in the evening
to make my dreams complete,
to envelop me, teach me,
remind me of why I am
a man-
Belladonna, true poison,
help me understand.
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