such a lovely skin rash

these hellebores were so translucently, ephemerally, wiltingly beautiful, they reminded me of some pale-skinned british maiden who is too pure and gentle for this world. and then i saw the rash on my hands and arms from the toxic alkaloids on their delicate stems and petals, and i suddenly felt as if i had met a princess of the house of windsor who had welcomed me with all appropriate courtesy and then, while my back was turned, had leaned toward one of her sisters, and cut me dead.

dried hellebore flowers