On killing the mealy bugs

My Sun Star was infested for a few days, but I put an end to that. Water, a little rubbing alcohol and a drop or two of dish soap, mixed together, then sprayed on all the leaves and flowers, got rid of those little bugs. And luckily before any of my other eight houseplants were affected. But what's a mealy bug, you ask? See for yourself. Just don't be like me when I was a kid: after I saw a highly enlarged illustration of a bed bug, I didn't sleep well for weeks.

In other plant news, I have flower seedlings coming up on my patio. I've also planted mint, basil, chives, lavender and some other flowers. It's exciting to see the green tips come up out of the soil, which I've watered and tended. I could be a farmer, I think. It amazes me that those little black seeds really turn into something.

SANTA FE SKIES

PIECES OF POEMS

I've been writing half-poems lately, small poems, unfinished poems, whatever you choose to call them. Though sometimes they finish themselves before I realize they're done. Mostly they have no titles.

4-1-06

"God, who thinks about poetry all the time..."
time out of mind
world without end.

This is the soul you love,
and the body that loves you back, if you let it.
The soul that wakes when your body is nearly asleep,
when your body is not thinking of poetry
or God
or time.

4-26-06

Out of the wind,
the sun's pressing warmth
makes a cloak of itself
to shield the body,
darken the eyes.

Staring into my own uninterrupted patch of blue,
bordered only by the walls
of my small life, I pull the sun
more closely around me, tucking the edges
around my bare feet, my bent knees.

Solomon's Daughter
4-27-06

I go out onto the stage
every evening at the hour of dusk
They come to see me
to hear me sing
They have heard of my beauty
and it draws them
like it draws the lovers
of whom I sing

Do you worry when I am alone
when you are not with me
when I have finished singing
and darkness has fully crept in
and I am too weary to eat

© 2006 April K Szuch

Comments

[Josh]

I think I almost vomitted when I clicked on the link to the mealy bug. Seriously -- ugh!

[Katie]

Congrats on your plants. I know what you mean about delighting in the little shoots. I just spent about a half hour in the yard I just landscaped, staring in stupid wonder at the changes in the plants since yesterday and the patterns of early morning light I don't usually get up in time to see. Here in Carolina the growing season is already well underway, and my herbs are going berzerk. The cilantro is so tall it looks like celery -- rather rediculous, actually. Sure wish I could afford a digital SLR so I could post pictures of the plants . . . but then again, I wouldn't have afforded the plants if I'd gotten the camera!