August 17: Milkweed Pods

In the field out back the milkweed pods swell on stalks like oddly-shaped cucumbers--strange, pregnant fruits of late summer. It seems like just last week I was writing about the perfume of the flowers. Now all that remains of those flowers are darkened curls of dried up stems. Upright like tiny ears of corn, the green pods ridged with soft "spikes" grow fatter and fatter on the plants. Come fall these pods will burst open to release seeds attached to silky little streamers that disperse on the breeze like down. But for now they're ripening in the sun, maturing for that future harvest by the wind.

Milkweed pods swelling,
preparing to celebrate
summer's end with Poof!