Romancing The Oleander

Words by Shruti Sareen
Art by Erica Dionora

I desired its pink flowers
and its spiky, lance-like leaves
I read one could get you poisoned
and twelve could leave you dead.

The yellow flowers are the commonest
in India, but the red, being more poisonous
would suit my purpose better.

The seedswould do just as well. Anything, really.
Any part of this pretty ornamental garden plant
which hid death in the whorls of its flowers.

How harsh a death could such a pretty flower
bring, after all, and such a lilting flower name
though the leaves are bitter? The flowers too,
I suppose. Imagine a pretty death
devoid of bitterness. They sell a plant for about
three hundred rupees on Amazon. I thought
I could keep a plant-pet, love it, grow it,
perhaps eat it. I could always garden,
in case I didn't die. Thus I have a macabre romance
with the oleander. Either I grow the oleander,
or the oleander kills me.