PADUA, ITALY 1844
Curious young scholar from Naples
Wandered into a fertile private garden
He first saw through his guest bedroom window.
By an unusual purple shrub with botanical gems, an exquisite bloom stood
Slender, alluring, barely coming
Into womanhood. Her scent,
Cloying like lavender. Her touch,
Lethal like aconite. The maiden
Her famous scientist father
Called Beatrice was
One of his experiments—like the garden
Full of poisonous plants. Testament to an investigative zeal.
How can lovely things hide such danger?
Nevertheless, Beatrice & Giovanni meet,
Always at the broken fountain that still gushed fresh water,
Craving company. There love bloomed.
The closer Beatrice & Giovanni became,
The more exposed he became to her toxicity.
Cyanotic bruise—evidence on his forearm.
The web-spinning spider shrivelled under his touch, flies fell under his noxious breath.
Now they’re both locked in. Doctor Rappaccini’s own
Adam and Eve, with nowhere to go but
That poisonous Garden Of Eden. Botanist madman
Did double duty as God & Satan.
Only a silver
Vial of elixir
From another man of science
Can save them both—
W: Chinese New Year 2025
[ Inspired by the short story Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. ]
African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active in creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books–Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and his newest, The Mansion–and 78 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.