Poetry by Jenny Wong: A Word of Caution When Foraging for Arnica

A Word of Caution When Foraging for Arnica

Her petals are cartwheels, 
the colors 
of sunlight and warning. 
She will warm at the touch of skin,
soothe the bruise
of hurt and unlove,
tend to the aches that swell 
beneath human hull.
Embrace what she offers,
but let her return to her roots.
If she is taken to mouth, 
crushed 
between the greed of hungered teeth,
captured with the intent 
to nourish a body not her own,
she will not dissolve meekly 
into bloodstream and cells
but set livers to sleep
and pull bodies underground.