by Elise McArdle
Sweet alyssum, fleabane, sage
asteraceae, inulae.
Plants to heal, dear, all that ails you.
Plants, they say, keep fleas away.
Mote it be that I should keep you,
wrote it was I’d be your queen.
Better my heart (an iron maiden)
than gallows or the guillotine.
Elise McArdle is a UW-Milwaukee senior studying Literary and Critical Theory. Her interests in this arena include women’s literature and magical realism. Elise also loves hiking, ceramics, and watercolor, and has been playing the French horn for thirteen years.
