this weed couldn’t have looked more obvious when i came upon it. like some bristle armed alien marching out of the prairie. yet i have probably walked past this very stem one hundred times since april, and never noticed it until today. there it was, one step off the trail i walk most frequently with the dog. really? an entire spring, summer, and fall of walks, and now we meet? perhaps we have met before, and you just dyed your hair or got new glasses…

trailside weed

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota