hydrangea queen

blue hydrangea grows in acidic soil;

alkaline conditions make hydrangea red.

water deep the roots, minding the wilt

not kept in tree’s shade or in summer’s heat.

.

white picket fences lined with hydrangea -

burgundy, white, blue -

summer’s sun blistering from cerulean sky -

grey shingles saline soaked, ridge to soil.

.

picking apart false bloom’s etymology

pressing through round of inflorescence

burying deep the unknown’s fragility

under Greek words & delicate replication.

.

breathing with salinited lungs,

gull’s shriek cuts through brine-thick air,

asphalt makes way to slow blown sand;

manicured hydrangea makes way

to willful salt spray rose.

.

quiet wild to showy cultivar - florals tamed -

controlling aesthetics of a Civilized Wild.

Hydrangeaceae made native;

engineered darling barely suited to its home.

.

a foreigner in a foreigner’s land -

image as cultivated as cultivars -

hoping no one sees failed adaptation.

bow to flower crown or flower’s crown.

.

are planted domesticated flora threatened

by the fast creeping invasives of grave names:

Phragmites, Centaurea stoebe -

is thought given when it’s no threat to your awning?

.

summer’s show bleeds to autumn’s decay

sporting shadows of colors along white fences

dunes’ bright hips peeking from bare brambles

sands alive still as the township sleeps