i’ve known milkweed all my life. i grew up breaking its stems to watch the milky sap flow. i cracked open its seed pods and tossed fluffy seed parachutes in the air. later i celebrated it as a home and food for monarch butterflies. when we got bees, i loved that its late summer blossoms fed the bees that made our back yard honey. and today i found this elegant old milkweed stem by the side of a walking path through a prairie and suddenly saw it as something brand new again. i still love you, milkweed, just the same as always.

milkweed stem

vadnais lake, st. paul, minnesota