#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Two leaning strands of purple tipped meadow grass
Excerpt from “First Book", Dove, Rita. “The First Book.” Callaloo, vol. 31, no. 3, 2008, pp. 753–753. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27654898.
I couldn’t help myself. I walked to the river, to the meadow, and took my pictures and did not post them on Instagram because today is #Blackout Tuesday, in which black squares are shared on Instagram in an attempt to express solidarity with those protesting the murder of George Floyd.
I saved my pictures to post here in my blog. I uploaded them here. I deleted them here. I am honoring the life and death of George Floyd with my black squares and my picture-blind meadow walk, where I
knelt down in the grass and with my spade I dug up one, two, three, four, five young milkweed plants. I put them in my bag and carried them home. I dug five holes and planted them in my garden near the meadow. Watered them and watered them all day, hoping they will be alive and stay alive
hoping the milkweed plants will survive and grow and other years they will have pods and blossoms and seeds to scatter. And one day, as naturalist Craig Holdredge writes, “an adult monarch will lay its eggs on the leaves, the larvae will live from its leaves and the milky sap the plants contain, and the adults drink from the flower nectar. . .”
P.S. from 3:47 a.m. June 3.
Here’s the thing. I am like the milkweed moved from one piece of ground to another. I need to grow from a new place.I am disrupted.
