All Plants Are Not Our Friends

Admire the green and lovely plant,
waving in the gentle breeze.
It grows upright as is its wont,
it seeks only Gaea to please.

The leaves look soft, the stem so proud,
the buds are bursting forth to show
white, tiny petals, who in the sun
will into bounteous flowers grow.

Beware the soft and velvet leaves!
Beware the innocent budding blooms!
Beware the graceful stem, for there
you, Gardner, will meet your doom.

Hid 'midst velvet innocence
a sting like torrid death awaits,
'til Flora-love, aroused by buds,
draws naive Gardner to her fate!

For lo! The leaves that were thought soft
reach out with poisonous feint,
and sting the hands that lovingly touch
the once-thought gentle plant.

Editor's note: The author recently encountered stinging nettles in a planter, and unwittingly brushed up against them.