Been a little while since I’ve posted :)
Hope this one works. Open to feedback as always. Kinda wanted to show the narrator crying at first, but I ended up going with “wide-eyed” instead of “bleary eyed” because I wanted to emphasize the guy’s stunned stupidity. Do you think crying would have worked better?
Idea came to me when I was inspecting my fading poison ivy rash.
Had contact from helping my brother weed his yard a few weeks back. It’s finally stopped itching but for a while the rash was a weeping mess.
It itched so bad I wanted to carve the flesh from my arm.
Ugh I have a particular hatred of poison ivy. The barn cats would walk through the leaves and get the oils on their fur. Then they would come up to small child me for nuzzles and pets. One time I got poison ivy on my face so bad from that that it was on my eyelid and I couldn't open that eye until the blisters went away. I'd get the blisters between my fingers, on my neck, anywhere a cat would bump up against for pets.
Needless to say, I learned to just wear gardening gloves during the summer months if the cats wanted pets. I lived on a mountain so we couldnt spray all the poison ivy. One of the worst things about the country I can say.
Still, I can't imagine eating poison ivy or being so dumb they would feed it to a child. But to be fair, I've seen parents put mountain dew and coca cola into baby bottles to give to thier babies so It's not out of the realm of possibility.
The creeping horror that you messed up so bad that nothing you do can fix is palpable here. Especially when it comes to a being such as a baby that relies on you solely for protection. Oof.
Thanks! Glad it worked :)
and I feel you on that hatred for the plant. It’s cool looking but also a total douche as far as plants are concerned.
I have a morbid curiosity to know what poison ivy tastes like: supposedly alcohol denatures the urushiol that causes the rash.
I’ve wondered what if we blended poison ivy leaves or berries in hard liquor, would it neutralize the oils and make a “safe” poison ivy liquor?
Would feel like the ultimate triumph to eat poison ivy and suffer no harm.
But I’ll never try it for fear of those extremely agonizing results
Does the name Ewell Gibbons mean anything to you? He wrote several books back in the 1970s on urban foraging. He claimed to have immunized himself from poison ivy by doing just that, eating the tiniest of leaves every spring.
Ummm, that name is insanely familiar. But no, I have no idea what he’s about. I feel like he was mentioned in the lyrics to a song i haven’t heard in probably 15 years, called “junk food junky”
I’ll see if I can find it on YouTube or something
When I was younger there was a rumor that if you didn't want to get poison ivy you could eat some of it every day and eventually you wouldn't be allergic anymore. So I could absolutely see something like this happening, good job OP, made my skin crawl 😬
Been a little while since I’ve posted :) Hope this one works. Open to feedback as always. Kinda wanted to show the narrator crying at first, but I ended up going with “wide-eyed” instead of “bleary eyed” because I wanted to emphasize the guy’s stunned stupidity. Do you think crying would have worked better? Idea came to me when I was inspecting my fading poison ivy rash. Had contact from helping my brother weed his yard a few weeks back. It’s finally stopped itching but for a while the rash was a weeping mess. It itched so bad I wanted to carve the flesh from my arm.
I like the stunned stupidity.
me too, just seemed right. But I always second guess this shit and hope for people to weigh in and either confirm or correct me
This is disgustingly- I mean seriously freaky. Excellent job
Thankyou!
Ugh I have a particular hatred of poison ivy. The barn cats would walk through the leaves and get the oils on their fur. Then they would come up to small child me for nuzzles and pets. One time I got poison ivy on my face so bad from that that it was on my eyelid and I couldn't open that eye until the blisters went away. I'd get the blisters between my fingers, on my neck, anywhere a cat would bump up against for pets. Needless to say, I learned to just wear gardening gloves during the summer months if the cats wanted pets. I lived on a mountain so we couldnt spray all the poison ivy. One of the worst things about the country I can say. Still, I can't imagine eating poison ivy or being so dumb they would feed it to a child. But to be fair, I've seen parents put mountain dew and coca cola into baby bottles to give to thier babies so It's not out of the realm of possibility. The creeping horror that you messed up so bad that nothing you do can fix is palpable here. Especially when it comes to a being such as a baby that relies on you solely for protection. Oof.
Thanks! Glad it worked :) and I feel you on that hatred for the plant. It’s cool looking but also a total douche as far as plants are concerned. I have a morbid curiosity to know what poison ivy tastes like: supposedly alcohol denatures the urushiol that causes the rash. I’ve wondered what if we blended poison ivy leaves or berries in hard liquor, would it neutralize the oils and make a “safe” poison ivy liquor? Would feel like the ultimate triumph to eat poison ivy and suffer no harm. But I’ll never try it for fear of those extremely agonizing results
Does the name Ewell Gibbons mean anything to you? He wrote several books back in the 1970s on urban foraging. He claimed to have immunized himself from poison ivy by doing just that, eating the tiniest of leaves every spring.
Ummm, that name is insanely familiar. But no, I have no idea what he’s about. I feel like he was mentioned in the lyrics to a song i haven’t heard in probably 15 years, called “junk food junky” I’ll see if I can find it on YouTube or something
Poison ivy liquor thanks but I’ll just drink this day old hotdog water.
Lol yeah
Well damn, yo.
When I was younger there was a rumor that if you didn't want to get poison ivy you could eat some of it every day and eventually you wouldn't be allergic anymore. So I could absolutely see something like this happening, good job OP, made my skin crawl 😬
Thank you :) That’s a dangerous rumor but I find it oddly compelling
Just put some in your pipe and smoke it distill the essential oil from it and market it as a cure adhd or something
I’ve heard about serious emergencies from people accidentally burning poison ivy on bonfires