Dusted

Dalmatian toadflax studied under Francis Picabia at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Later, on a freighter out of Iskenderun, Turkey, toadflax made his way to Seattle in a burlap sack. Since then, the strongly competitive toadflax has spread his nonlinear, arational roots in 22 American states. He is best known as an innovative flower, not to mention follower of Wassily Kandinsky's philosophy of Gesamtkunstwerk. Having no one permanent residence, he makes his home in cow pastures. He stands tall along the shoulders of little-used country lanes where drunks stop to urinate. He also haunts rural dumps frequented by clumsily quizzical black bears, all places where lovely little lavender butterflies go this way, and they go that way. Indeed, in these quiet and forgotten edens of timeless idyll, women in shapeless dresses mutter to themselves as they poke piles of refuse with smooth worn wooden poles. At only four feet in height, toadflax is a dandy, known by his showy yellow spring attire. As a result, he is often mistaken for a snapdragon. He is not a snapdragon. Denounced by many critics as little more than a Class B Noxious Weed, toadflax says his art arises out of acheiropoieta-it springs into being miraculously.

toadflax may be reached at [email protected] or www.americanpoetryalliance.com.