2009-03-10 - 8:46 p.m.

a problem with flowers

my particular friend slid the vase off to the side of the table. "i have a problem with flowers," he said.

"how could you have a problem with a poor little dianthus?" his friend asked, but the conversation stopped there.

i remember driving through naivasha at night, that summer i studied in kenya. there were shantytowns sprung up around greenhouses full of roses, giant glowing blisters on the landscape. almost half a million people had been drawn to the lake by the flower trade, and the sanitation was very bad.

that fall, a school friend told me about a mutual acquaintance's first visit to the united states. "he couldn't believe how green it was here, how good for crops and livestock - but nobody was growing anything," she said. "mmm," i said, playing with her kitten on the bedroom floor.

right now, in my front yard, daffodils are blooming like firecrackers. pow pow pow.

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