{"id":4789,"date":"2022-06-30T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2022-06-28T23:12:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T22:12:30","slug":"dandelions-on-the-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/dandelions-on-the-common\/","title":{"rendered":"Dandelions on the Common<\/span>Craig Smith<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

There are new dandelions on the Common.<\/span>
\n<\/span>The spindly stalks of these coin-sized supernova<\/span>
\n<\/span>can barely lift their heads from the ground, today being November<\/span>
\n<\/span>and the season for dandelions long being over.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>One weekend, three years back, the boy and I questioned<\/span>
\n<\/span>how the solar rays of dandelion petals switched modes<\/span>
\n<\/span>to become the crowning afro that jettisoned the seeds<\/span>
\n<\/span>we chased across the Common.<\/span>
\n<\/span>The sequence of events was lost to us;<\/span>
\n<\/span>we wondered whether we’d misunderstood<\/span>
\n<\/span>the rigmarole of transformation.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Was it the same plant or, in fact, two separate but related genus<\/span>
\n<\/span>with their own particular methods of procreation?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>We found a stop-frame motion picture that followed the petals<\/span>
\n<\/span>as they folded like an umbergamp or parasol<\/span>
\n<\/span>and transmogrified in darkness where space was scarcest<\/span>
\n<\/span>until the flower unraveled to unveil the seeds it would release<\/span>
\n<\/span>for a boy and his father to scamper after.<\/span><\/p>\n

The video missed the pollination,<\/span>
\n<\/span>the symbiotic promenade of the bee on the flower-head,<\/span>
\n<\/span>collecting the pollen for its own ends while seeding the stamen<\/span>
\n<\/span>to trigger the transmogrification.<\/span>
\n<\/span>It was left to our imagination,<\/span>
\n<\/span>the dandelion and bee given their privacy<\/span>
\n<\/span>for their cross-species sexual relations<\/span>
\n<\/span>and lifestyle integration.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>We\u2019re on the grass in the heat of November,<\/span>
\n<\/span>counting the dandelions breaking through the Rookery turf<\/span>
\n<\/span>as if sitting among stars in a constellation.<\/span>
\n<\/span>A honey bee struggles to lift itself from the helipad of the terrace.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Lured out by the late-Autumn sun,<\/span>
\n<\/span>like the buds on the hydrangea, the blossom on the cherry,<\/span>
\n<\/span>or the squirrels hoarding chestnuts for a winter that will never come<\/span>
\n<\/span>and a hibernation they\u2019ll never take,<\/span>
\n<\/span>the bee has been tricked out of season<\/span>
\n<\/span>by the unseasonable weather,<\/span>
\n<\/span>dragged into existence before its time.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>We nudge it onto a fallen oak leaf, drizzle it onto a dandelion,<\/span>
\n<\/span>and leave them to their transaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Craig Smith<\/strong> is a poet and novelist from Huddersfield. His poetry has appeared in The North, Blizzard<\/em>, and The Interpreters\u2019 House<\/em>, and on <\/span>iambapoet.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/em> and Mechanics’ Institute Review<\/em>, and he is the author of the poetry collections <\/span>L.O.V.E. Love<\/span><\/i> (Smith\/Doorstop), <\/span>A Quick Word With A Rock And Roll Late Starter<\/span><\/i>, (Rue Bella), and the novel <\/span>Super-8<\/span><\/i> (Boyd Johnson).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There are new dandelions on the Common. The spindly stalks of these coin-sized supernova can barely lift their heads from the ground, today being November and the season for dandelions long being over. One weekend, three years back, the boy and I questioned how the solar rays of dandelion petals switched modes to become […]<\/p>\n

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