Pilewort

Celandine (Chelidonium majus) flowers all summer long, although its peak flowering comes in late spring. It drops seeds and grows a second generation during the summer. These are late celandine, with fewer flowers. They are members of the poppy family and imported to North America from England. They have an unusual yellow or saffron colored sap that was once used to treat liver disease, warts, and freckles. They seem to favor edges, but I suspect this is because we mow the middles. All of my flowering weeds grow just beyond the reach of my mower blade. Even this hearty weed seems less vibrant in the draught. Fewer late season flowers, a palish tint to the leaves. This may be the usual response to an absence of water, the trees and plants and weeds must have been wilting before when the rains didn't come. But this is the first time I have noticed. Did maples begin turning this early always? Did crabgrass expand imperialistically? Can the metaphors sustain across culture and ecology? Did tradition flower? This celandine, this season, these deep lobed leaves. On a hot but dry Saturday in the last weekend of August, rhythms and routines begin anew.

More death and more war. Everyday the driving ambitions of wealth and status, acquired for unusual purposes and glances the other way. Each individual, one point, no light.