#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Lily pad leaf heart in the wetlands
Dear George,
It was an exceptional day for my walk, and I took so many beautiful pictures in honor of you. Today is your first memorial service in Minneapolis. It was hot and sunny in the meadow. My dog, Charlie, met a bull frog in the middle of the dirt road. The bull frog leapt away to where he lives in the lily pad covered wetlands. We crossed the railroad tracks and walked there too. Today in the New York Times, I learned this from your friend:
“Witness Who Was in Floyd’s Car Says His Friend Did Not Resist Arrest
‘He was, from the beginning, trying in his humblest form to show he was not resisting in no form or way,’ said the friend, Maurice Lester Hall.”
And his words made me think of a picture I took in the meadow for you:
Lamb’s Tongue
Plantago lanceolata is used
in herbal teas and remedies.
Songbirds eat the seeds
and his words make me think of another picture I took for you:
Bladder campion
Fruit is a teardrop shaped capsule
when ripe it splits open at the top,
the 6 teeth flaring out.
Inside are kidney-shaped seeds,
black or nearly so.
It is also named the Grave Flower
or Flower of the Dead.
The lily pads were hundreds
thousands, shapes of greenly
curl-edged hearts.
A painted mother turtle on gravel
bowed her head
under a rust colored rail
and dug the hole for her nest
of eggs with her smart hind feet.
Suddenly, a shock
snapping turtle standing
in her fresh dug holel
with her bony plated tail,
trusting by instinct her ping pong white eggs
will survive the nest, all its hungry predators
and gestate to hatch and find their lone
way to swim the river in September.
