I am drawn to the painting
Like the cows that are drawn
To the double purple flower
Of the deadly Jimsom Weed
Drawn onto the painted silk
Are the cunning lethal curves of the stem
The calyx, long and tubular, swollen at the bottom
Surmounted by five sharp teeth
The artist plays her brush like the pied piper
Vines rise up to come-hither petals
Drawing me closer to the flowing scarf
Lured in like the bovine crowd
Helen Ohlson, a retired teacher, is an award winning writer who lives in Arden, Delaware. She is currently enrolled in a Botanical Illustration course with a group of talented artists at Longwood Gardens, where she found inspiration for her poem.