I never envisioned myself as the mother stopping in the drainage ditch at twilight paused by the sight of Milkweed pods cracked open, silk puffing out like a burst stuffed animal seam.
Again, and again, I tear pods from dry stems for my toddler to pluck the sumptuous dandelion-like seeds from their case. She insists: “Look!” as she delicately sprinkles them one-by-one on the long ditch grasses, on possibly the last comfortably warm breeze of the year, and I delight in the gossamers caught on her bleached hair, cobwebbing her black shirt, and poking out of her polka-dot, glitter rain boots.
Afterward, my daughter and I will blithely dance for the moon hovering over the nearby houses and thrill in how it follows us home, across the field, across the downy ground fading out downwind of us, even as the milky blanket reminds me of the frost threatening my last summer blooms.
ABOUT:
Whitney (Walters) Jacobson is an assistant editor of Split Rock Review. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction. Her poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, and reviews have been published by Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Feminine Collective, the Nemadji Review, Punctuate., Up North Lit, and Wanderlust-Journal, among other publications. Visit her website: whitneywaltersjacobson.wordpress.com.
EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING: Milkweed - The Loyal Seas
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