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Unseasonable

Unseasonable ATR/97.1 The poinsettias need watering again today, April fifth, and still bloom a red that seems lost, this confectionary season. It foreshadows Christ’s blood on the Cross, said the man who donated dozens of them to the church the week after Thanksgiving. He’d bought one in white to symbolize Virgin Birth, but someone else grabbed it at Epiphany. The last eight came home with us. They would not die at St. Valentine’s, or St. Patrick’s. Or stop blooming on Good Friday. At least that made sense— sort of. I mixed them with my other house plants, which are nowhere near as healthy, in hopes it wouldn’t look like Christmas. It does anyway. My orchids drop their pink and white, modernist blooms to spend years lolling fat green tongues at me like the spoiled brats I suspect they always have been. My wintered-over geraniums, also blood red, refuse to bloom indoors. I hover over the poinsettias, finger their soil for damp the way I’d check the temperature of a child’s bathwater. We had to take them, I tell my husband. Natalie said the church would throw them away. He nods. Our Christmas Cactus blooms on Halloween, he says. I have no children. I don’t know who I am protecting, or what, or why I seem to be so good at it. It’s like they are outlaws and I’m hiding them from the Cops of Spring, who pound on the door with a warrant. Maybe that’s why it’s so windy, why the sun is so strong. Go away, I shout, No one’s here. The poinsettias bloom on and on. I hurry upstairs to fill the watering can. Christine Potter Christine Potter is a poet, writer, and internet DJ who lives in the lower Hudson River Valley. Her two collections of poetry are Zero Degrees at First Light (2006) and Sheltering in Place (2013), both published by WordTech Communications. Her radio show, “Cocktails with Chris,” can be heard Thursday afternoons at 4 pm Eastern on Area24radio.com. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anglican Theological Review SAGE

Unseasonable

Potter, Christine
Anglican Theological Review , Volume 97 (1): 1 – Aug 16, 2021
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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2015 Anglican Theological Review Corporation
ISSN
0003-3286
eISSN
2163-6214
DOI
10.1177/000332861509700108
Publisher site
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Abstract

ATR/97.1 The poinsettias need watering again today, April fifth, and still bloom a red that seems lost, this confectionary season. It foreshadows Christ’s blood on the Cross, said the man who donated dozens of them to the church the week after Thanksgiving. He’d bought one in white to symbolize Virgin Birth, but someone else grabbed it at Epiphany. The last eight came home with us. They would not die at St. Valentine’s, or St. Patrick’s. Or stop blooming on Good Friday. At least that made sense— sort of. I mixed them with my other house plants, which are nowhere near as healthy, in hopes it wouldn’t look like Christmas. It does anyway. My orchids drop their pink and white, modernist blooms to spend years lolling fat green tongues at me like the spoiled brats I suspect they always have been. My wintered-over geraniums, also blood red, refuse to bloom indoors. I hover over the poinsettias, finger their soil for damp the way I’d check the temperature of a child’s bathwater. We had to take them, I tell my husband. Natalie said the church would throw them away. He nods. Our Christmas Cactus blooms on Halloween, he says. I have no children. I don’t know who I am protecting, or what, or why I seem to be so good at it. It’s like they are outlaws and I’m hiding them from the Cops of Spring, who pound on the door with a warrant. Maybe that’s why it’s so windy, why the sun is so strong. Go away, I shout, No one’s here. The poinsettias bloom on and on. I hurry upstairs to fill the watering can. Christine Potter Christine Potter is a poet, writer, and internet DJ who lives in the lower Hudson River Valley. Her two collections of poetry are Zero Degrees at First Light (2006) and Sheltering in Place (2013), both published by WordTech Communications. Her radio show, “Cocktails with Chris,” can be heard Thursday afternoons at 4 pm Eastern on Area24radio.com.

Journal

Anglican Theological Review – SAGE

Published: Aug 16, 2021

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