Meryl Grandy

Blossom Time

I paddle upstream, the floating catalpa tree blossoms passing by at a somewhat faster rate than does the shore.  The static map, if one wants to consult it, will show the places I go to, but not the distance I will travel.  The map leaves out the floating catalpa blossoms that drift by at a somewhat faster rate than does the shore.  Maps always leave out more than they hold.

Time that has happened

I stop to watch the blossoms fall.  They strike the water about once per second, an inexact clock, a blossom clock.

After paddling a distance of about a many thousand blossoms, I find a great blue heron standing in collected blossoms and hunting.  It makes a strike and misses.



The wind comes up, but the blossoms continue to fall at the same inexact rate.  The science of blossom dropping is not directly proportional to the wind.

Time waiting to happen

I return, passing the same number of blossoms even though many of the blossoms I passed on the way up have drifted past where I will take out.  More blossoms have been added to the river - one per second per tree.