Saturday, June 17, 2006


OK, RUB IT IN, I DESERVE IT


Out in the morning sun the small patch of dokudami that grows atop one of the compost heaps is now sending up those crisp white blossoms from its dusky elegance of green, reminding me with the precision of blossoms, taunting me with that beauty in the face of my lunkheaded, sweaty weedwhacking frenzy of Wednesday, in which for some feverish reason I whacked clear the classy patch of actually medicinal dokudami that was growing with soft lushness in the shadows beneath the weeping cherry, jinchoge and forsythia (and growing there harmlessly, it must be said, in my non-delirious, sunny Saturday state of mind)...

So there in the soft breeze they twinkle tortuously, those few ivory teasers, going inyerface... inyerface... humbling me as I should be humbled for what I have done, the beauty I have lost...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, on Wednesday, as I recall from what you wrote, the evil empire was plaguing you (and all of us)...perhaps they got to the weedwhacker too. Is the dokudami an annual that will return with its beauty and healthful properties? The photo is lovely.

Robert Brady said...

Yes, Annie, the dokudami will be back next year, likely all the stronger for my depredations... but years aren't as throwaway as they used to be...

Eric Pyle said...

You're probably a better gardener than I am, but frankly I would get the dokudami now while it's still contained. And don't mess around with economic sanctions -- I'm talking violence.

That stuff may be medicinal (everybody says so but nobody wants to come to my garden and pick any) but it also spreads like crazy and takes over. It is the best plant I know for proving that Intelligent Design was enacted by someone with other than kind intentions. If you just whack off the tops, the roots just get stronger. And when you try to pull it up by the roots, it cleverly breaks off. And if you get down on your knees with a little trowel and dig up the roots, you will be able to cover about a square meter per week.

I say nuke the bastards.