Writing in Snow

Even Weeds Bloom

Word count: 501

I have a very definite opinion of oleanders. They are weeds with blossoms. Oleanders are weeds because they a difficult, if not impossible to kill. You have to dig them out to get rid of them. If you leave one small oleander root in the ground, the entire plant grows back bigger and stronger then before.

Oleanders are like rats or cockroaches, there is no such thing as just one and if there is just one of them, then it is a pregnant female. If you plant one oleander in your backyard, you will soon have a forest of oleanders. A forest of huge flowering tree-like bushes that you have to have trimmed at least twice a year and if it rains more then one inch you have to trim them twelve times a year.

Oleanders are beautiful and poisonous weeds that, from my experience, come in three colors. In my yard, there are white, red, and pink oleanders. The white and the red varieties look extremely healthy, robust, and exquisitely beautiful. The pink oleander bush in my yard looks pathetic. It cannot seem to decide whether it is alive or dead.

The pink oleander seems to have a tenuous hold on life. It does not grow fast; actually, it does not appear to grow even a small amount. It does not produce very many blooms and I do not think it is even capable of reproducing itself. The pink oleander is a tall bush striving to become a tree and failing miserably. I think the pink oleander continues to live just to piss me off. It continues to live because it just does not know how to give up.

That, of course, is a trait of oleanders and all weeds. No matter what you do to them or pour on them, they continue to return or grow year after year. I do not have to water them. I do not have to give them plant food. I do not have to talk pleasantly to them because they will grow even when I curse them; and for that, I have to respect them.

The previous owners planted the oleanders on my prosperity. I have attempted several times, using different methods, to get rid of them and they just keep coming back. I have decided the best approach is to keep them trim, especially off the eaves of the house, and let them grow.

Oleander pollen makes me sneeze. If I touch their leaves or bark, I get a rash. If the branch of an oleander brushes against my bare arm, I itch and itch and itch. Still I am going to leave them growing where they are and attempt to avoid any physical contact with them. Instead of cursing them and getting estimates about their removal, I am going to look at the beautiful blossom and write haiku. This is the only way I can enjoy their beauty and tolerate the oleander bushes, which in my yard looks like oleander trees.