Don't poke the pokeweed

Something strange has been growing in the corner by the fence:

   Someone had told me it was called "pokeweed," and they were right. These persistent weeds have been sprouting up in my backyard every summer, and I keep pulling them out by hand. What I didn't know, until I read it in today's paper, was that the plant is highly poisonous. And not just the berries: the WHOLE plant. Especially the stem & the taproots. You shouldn't handle them without gloves, which I've never used before. And they're not just poisonous to people: they're poisonous to animals too! Despite that, birds eat them—and I found evidence that they were eating mine. Guess what I'm going to be digging up tomorrow morning!