Mother Rosemary,

Heretical Herbs

☽☾

The immortal mother of the household.

Immortal, not from what all must accept,

but what lingers long after it’s dead.

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance,”—Ophelia once said,

and that is the immortality of knowledge.

Mother to daughter, but most importantly,

mother to son,

speak it, and witness it,

for it to be done.

Scatter me across floors,

pretend I yield the black death,

then find me later,

across ashen morgues,

when your friend is dead.