torn paper

have you ever seen a wild carnation? i never had until our last trip to france, when our next door neighbor knocked on our door and told us to follow him. we drove out of town, and down a dirt road between vineyards, and then got out to walk a narrow path, with his dogs milling around our feet. i expected something showy and convoluted with crenelated torn paper petals. in the end the wild carnation was one of the least showy flowers i’ve ever seen. a pale pink spray of five small petals, looking more like phlox than like a carnation, that sprouted from a slender green bladder, like campion. it was perched precariously on a thread-thin stem, and waved in the warm breeze. it was a little like eating your first tiny wild plum, and realizing that all your life you’ve just been consuming something bigger, showier, and more watered down than the original.

pink carnation bloom