on hydrangeas.

small and white, clean and bright, you look happy to meet me

blossom of snow may you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever

i don't remember the first time i saw the sound of music or heard captain von trapp sing "edelweiss," but

 i do remember being small and scooping white hydrangea petals into my hands and thinking, yes. this is what he means. blossoms of snow.

 hydrangeas bloomed throughout my grandparents' yard in the upstate and all over charleston by the coast. i associate them with the south, with the place where i grew up, with the city where i went to school.

how happy i am, then, that they bloom here, too. big and blue, small and white, the deepest of pinks, the most delicate of purples...and always looking happy to meet me.