specimen pressed
no. 12 · h-coll.
a coastal poppy of papery, sand-pink petals, each leaving a faint white residue when crushed. it grows in the line between where the sea reaches and where the wheel-ruts begin. the head droops by afternoon and recovers overnight.
the salt is its own, drawn from below; no salt-pan keeper has yet made it grow in salt added by hand. tolerant of brackish wind and of the slow erosion of harbour walls. companion to the river's last mile, the sea at its kindest, the long view from the bridge to the island. some keepers of the lighthouse press one into the logbook each spring.
field note — i pressed one in a salt-stained book. a year later the salt was still there, the petal was not.