Toxic Flora
There is something vital
about the Passiflora aliriculatat,
which over a million years varied its cynogens
to discourage feasting insects
although the Heliconius butterfly
resolutely adapted to those same poisons
finally transmuting itself into one—
actually repelling predators
as it leisurely fluttered
from leaf to blossom
seeking out a spot for eggs.
What does this demonstrate about toxins
or residence?
Or carrying around a portion of the childhood home
where the father instructs the daughter on the uses of poison
then accuses her of being so potent?
Kimiko Hahn is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently Foreign Bodies (W.W. Norton, 2020), an exploration of how objects govern our lives from intimate moments to current events. Read more.
Kimiko Hahn’s poem “Toxic Flora” is reprinted from Toxic Flora: Poems. Copyright (c) 2010 by Kimiko Hahn. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.