Meet the Bastards

There we were. Mere babes, turned out by our adoptive parents, the kindly aquatic moles that had once suckled us to their ample bosoms. Yes, there we were, Rayetta and me, toddlers, toddling along the busy highway. Our diapers pooped.

Yet, there also came Dr. Badgemagus Swineherd, botanizing along from pavement’s edge right on up the backslope of that great, busy highway. I shall ne’er forget Dr. Swineherd’s foretelling what he foretold as he chanced to espy Rayetta and me, Ray. “What have we here, then? Little orphan bastards, is it. I shall take ye twain home with me. And ye shall labor day and night in my herbarium. But what shall I name ye? Ha! I know. Ye toddle amid the Rapistrum rugosum, so I shall name ye Ray, and er,let’s see now, ye, Rayetta. And the twain of ye shall I also wise up to the ways of the Druidry, once we get those diapers changed.”

So now I have come back to that very spot where it all began, amid the Rapistrums, bastards, every one of them. Boo hoo. I canna hep but think of these Rapistrums as kinfolk. Boo hoo hoo. It’s like a reunion. Boo hoo hoo hoo. Er. Hold it while I compose myself. Sniff. There now. All righty then. Let’s meet some of my cousins.

Meet Ray Earl Pistrum. Ray Earl wound up habitating in a pavement crack.

Meet Ray Lowell Pistrum. Ray Lowell sprawls across the ecotone, towards pavement’s edge.

Meet a tall drink of water, Ms. Ray May Pistrum. She has stem leaves and flowers already. She habitates up near the fence.

Meet Ray Baby Pistrum. Ray Baby has to share a room with a dang Prickly Poppy (Argemone aurantiaca). Watch out for those spines, Ray Baby.

Hold it again. This all makes me too sad. Boo hoo hoo.