POISON SCHMIVY

I had been pondering it for months....probably since last year...

     not sure how to approach it---
         

               the poison ivy taking over my flower bed

especially since we (the poison ivy and I)  had an ugly encounter last summer--yeah and I had a bright red insanely itchy rash all up my right arm for a few months to prove it.


How do you get rid of something so threatening??  

I asked around but nobody was much help...

...."my cousin got it and she had red blotches all over her face"

...."I once had it as a kid--it was so itchy and burned like crazy--now I'm allergic to plants"

...."hard to get rid of, that's all I know"

...."once you get it, the next time it's even worse"


I was dreading it.

Every day I would walk past my beautiful roses and there it was--

the three leaved monster--

mocking me...

taunting me...

we were in a standoff... 

and so far the poison ivy was winning

There had to be a way....but

   I couldn't touch it

   I couldn't spray it--did that last year and the whole rose bush died                

   I couldn't trim it--it would just come back even stronger like a 

            horrible infection 

Months went by...

Finally I had enough---it was now or never

I put on some industrial strength gloves I bought at the hardware store and went out to face the culprit.

I began pulling slowly at first..

       hmm, 

             strange how easily it succumbed, how thin and weak the branches were that held those foreboding leaves--

             ha! there was not so much after all, behind that fierce image

I pulled faster and harder getting some strange pleasure and satisfaction  

I was doing it!! 

Now there was no stopping me!!

After several hours and two large garbage bags later, I looked around triumphant....

 the magnificent pale pink blossoms on my rose bush were clearly visible.  Now I could actually see the whole bush

Yeah

poison ivy/poison schmivy

Note to self:

    Most things we         

fear

dread

avoid

stew over

turn out to be nothing more than

spindly branched

overblown

cowardly

wimpy

Poison Schmivy