{"id":14067,"date":"2026-02-18T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14067"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:04:34","slug":"monkshood-charles-brice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=14067","title":{"rendered":"MONKSHOOD – Charles Brice"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish everything in my life<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 could be as simple<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 as the orange leaves<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 on our service berry bush<\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

or the purple plumes<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 of our monkshood plants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But we can\u2019t get in touch<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with our friend, Lily.<\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

She lives in two rooms<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with her husband and three<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 children. They went through<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 everything awful to get<\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

to our country where they started<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 their new lives in the land<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of freedom. The lawyer told<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 them their papers would<\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

be ready last month. They don\u2019t<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 know what the hold-up is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today men in masks put<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0them in a truck<\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

with no license plates. We can\u2019t find<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 them. We don\u2019t know where<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they are. For them our country<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 has become like our<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

*<\/span>monkshood\u2014every part<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of that plant is deadly,<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0poisonous, but<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 beautiful to look at.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His tenth poetry collection is A Brief History of the Sixties<\/em> (Alien Buddha Press, 2026). His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net Anthology<\/em> and the Pushcart Prize <\/em>and has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Ibbetson Street, Chiron Review, The MacGuffin<\/em>, and elsewhere.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish everything in my life \u00a0\u00a0 could be as simple \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 as the orange leaves \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 on our service berry bush * or the purple plumes \u00a0\u00a0 of our monkshood plants. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But we can\u2019t get in touch \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with our friend, Lily. * She lives in two rooms \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with her husband and [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[480],"class_list":["post-14067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-monkshood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14067"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14081,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14067\/revisions\/14081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}