The first among to wake up in the Spring
The award winner, comes with a sting
Stinging Nettle pubescent and green
Cannot touch the super herbal queen
Urtica dioica is the botanic name
Dioica is the one with European fame
Tropical cousins are all not the same
Strong and sharp, they can make you lame
Each sting is a delicate hollow hair
Stiffened with a tip of silica ware
Swollen base that stores the venom with care
Shoots its payload, touch, if you dare
Transmitters are same as yours and mine
Acytylcholine , serotonin and histamine
If stung by nettles, remedy is close at hand
Do not go far, Dock is where you stand
sanguineous leprosy you have come
for me at last.
pity the small things.
fingernail feelings...
i had no need for them in the fourth
grade at ellsworth elementary.
blood in the principals office,
blood in the hallway.
returning home off the bus down the
gravel road the pool of bethesda
in a mudpuddle to my right.
the angels stirred up by the undercarrage
of a 76 cheyenne passing overhead.
it does not leak oil but maybe
a little gin and salt.
rattling, clanking, coming a little more
undone..
april in the kitchen canning blackberry jam.
you were a good mother you know.
pouring cold bath water over my skin after
walking
through the stinging nettles.
you said dont worry its not leprosy but
just a metaphor you will use later in life in a
poem.
you showed me the bookshelf and
described how
stinging nettles are called Urtica dioica
and originated from austria.
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