The Wearin’ O’ Th’ Green (Southern Style)

Each and every spring in the South we get ready to sneeze, cough, choke, suffer headaches, and generally feel lousy. Our flora are copulating in their special way, generating clouds of pollen spores with a greenish hue. As this cycle of plant life is dancing in the air, we retreat indoors to avoid the unpleasant physical effects. Cars are coated with green, lawn furniture is unusable, drug stores do a huge business in antihistamines. This lasts between 6 weeks and 10 weeks. Occasionally a heavy dew or short rain settles the big green clouds and leaves a sort of abstract nature’s artwork on everything. But the cloud returns and so do the symptoms. At the end of this annual orgy, the green is replaced with an explosion of rainbowesque colors. Plants have birthed flowers, trees have grown leaves, all the empty spaces have been filled with color and foliage. Birds, bees, squirrels, mice, shrews, and who knows what other species, establish nests to raise the next generation. Summer is on the way. Soon I will be able to take a deep breath of air. No more need for my asthma rescue inhaler...till next spring.