Mikaela Castledine #96 Ha Ha Harissa

Yes the advice was good

wear the gloves when massaging

the seeds from the soaked

dried chillies

but of course I couldn't be bothered 

walking up the stairs to fetch them

one hour later

and the capsaicinoid concentration on my fingers

makes even typing these words

a pungent burn

the Harissa hotter than anything I have made

in a long history of curry pastes

and sprinkling the chilli-shrimp Burmese balachaung

on every meal

somewhere on the Scoville scale

the numbers move from

taste to toxicity