2016Bluestone

Bamboo Shoots Kevin McDaniel

A terracotta full with variegated bamboo, submerged just below the waterline of a pond bog, the kind that looks like paint brushes showered under a spigot before tucked and pressed inside a paper towel,having flared bristles with dried paint residue hours later, pushing through the pea gravel, above the waterline, reaching for light. Early spring stimulates their proud ascent. Having survived the pond keeper’s November pruning shears, icy Februaries, and cosmic koi appetites aroused after a winter slumber, their leaflets spread, bathed by the August sun, while the other bog plants become crunchy as bagged plastic Easter grass. But now, the terracotta lies under a back porch, a home for an occasional transient daddy longlegs and stink bugs— only an empty hull after the shoots became a turnstile for the koi spawning ritual: Half broken and pressed down with egg deposits. Yet, two shoots—surviving remnants of the assault—have taken root in a floating pot, alongside a Cork- screw Rush and moss tuffs, floating and determined to stay rooted.

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