(PROSE POEM)

LAVENDER

​DOUG VAN HOOSER

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​Cotswold, that area in England where the villages define cute, quaint, and idyllic, and roads are a lane with passing nooks, a farmer turned entrepreneur plants his acres to crest in a wave of undulating lavender. A destination for tour buses that eel through the landscape and drop the tourists like coins in the fountain of color. Each pay two and one-half pounds to mingle with the flowers, chat about the scent, gossip about their holiday. Where are the imitators? The impersonators? The copycats apparently declawed. The field’s color regal but this is Snowshill, the Vale of Evesham, not Windsor. It’s the unusual caught in the beauty of rolling repetitive shades of blonde. A bread basket of wheat, and barley ripe for malting. From a distance the field stands out, a streak of color in the hair on top of a congenial face. From the air it must appear as a discarded piece of cloth that doesn’t fit the personality. Lavender’s medicinal properties apparently lighten mood with a side effect of smiles. The field a stage, the flowers actors performing a Summer’s Tale. A light drama enjoyed before a meal.

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Doug Van Hooser's poetry has appeared in Chariton Review, Split Rock Review, Manhattanville Review, and Poetry Quarterly among other publications. His fiction can be found in Red Earth Review, Crack the Spine, and Light and Dark. Doug is a playwright active at Three Cat Productions and Chicago Dramatists Theatre.