Paulownia flowers, did not look at you carefully

"Paulownia Flower" | text: Wen Fang

"When the ancient hand is broken, it will reveal a series of scars."

/01/

Suddenly, after a night of fierce wind and rain, thousands of trees and flowers bloomed overnight.

In the early morning, with a hint of cold wind, a casual glance, the lilac flowers of your trees have finally bloomed, blooming in this extraordinary spring, opening in this season of suffering drought, this soul-breaking morning.

The impression of you, always earlier than this bloom, probably after the prosperity of the peach blossoms and pear blossoms, after the tear rain of thousands of purples and reds, you always bloom so surprisingly, so silently, it seems that you always want to open a crisp sound full of trees for people who have just experienced loss.

You in your memory don't seem to be our national breed. About thirty years ago, in the early days of reform and opening up, you introduced from other places to try to plant in our hometown, and you achieved great success. In the spring, the young shoots that break out of the soil are enough to grow a foot tall in one night, and the huge vitality is more like us naughty children. In a few days, the grove of trees that were more than two feet tall became the wind, and we shuttled through them, using a huge leaf as an umbrella and picking up a dry leaf pole as a cigarette.

Not many years of hard work, the fields, ditches along the river will be full of your figure, in the thick canopy, there are birds singing, under the thick trunk, there are old farmers in the shade, they talk about the good harvest of the year, the joy of the mood is like the leaves of the tree, issuing a cheerful laughter.

In the courtyard is also indispensable to your shadow, lilac flowers will always surprise the gray sky of spring, like hanging a string of silver bells, shaking up a winter dream, so your joy and sweet laughter, just like your unruly petals inspire the shadow of one or two elm poplars in the middle, spitting green sprouts.

I don't know why there are always one or two poplar trees or elms in the farm yard, perhaps after the food and clothing of people have not forgotten the pain of the past, or perhaps there are still some unkind feelings in a small and happy life.

Let's say that the elm tree in my family, the vicissitudes of the years are embedded in his dry brown cracks, each crack seems to be an ancient annual ring, the ancient hand breaks, will reveal a scar.

However, the old tree was incessant and resolutely spit green.

Just as I remember the spring when I was a child, every year when the elm tree grows buds, we will climb up to its figure, release the hope of a winter in the arms of spring, release it in the hands it gives, we not only take off its sweet elm money to fill our hunger, but also see that it is more like our old mother, and the rickety body will always bring us a glimmer of hope.

/02/

Today, we are no longer hungry and watch the introduced paulownia trees come to life! But there were always problems that haunted me, because we were no longer hungry because of the "introduction", and because of the vitality of the paulownia tree we took off the hat of poverty. But some new problems, such as the flowers that have been delayed this spring, such as this year's drought, such as... In short, some unsatisfactory problems bother me all the time.

One day I finally couldn't stand the torment of trouble, and rode to an ancient city, a city carrying two thousand years of thoughts and dreams - Qufu, eager to find a sacred place of the soul.

I try to avoid the hustle and bustle of the avenue, all the people and things related to money and their busy figures.

What a familiar country road, how many times have you wandered around, looking at the tall poplar trees beside the road and their paulownia mixed with half-tree flowers, looking at a cluster of grain-eating mangoes hanging from the treetops (flowers on poplar trees, edible), and the red low-hanging flower spikes not only brightly resembled a tree, but also shook red all the way. My heart couldn't help but get excited, as if I was back to the time when I was a child to help my mother pick up grain.

I saw a woman picking up grain and food from afar, and I got out of the car but my heart was half cold. I walked for a long time to find a clean land, a piece of pollution without white clinker foam, no dumping of construction waste, no clean land with the stench of domestic garbage, and when I picked up a spike of fresh and tender grain and filled it in my mouth, I barely felt the sweetness of the belly, which had become a memory, a memory that could only be seen in dreams.

At that time, although life was hard, but with the protection of the mother, although there was not too much money-related shadow, through the mother's picking up and supplementation can always fill the warmth of some home, the mother always said "keep the moon and wait for the flowers to bloom, the days will always have some ways to spend", I can probably understand what she means, just like every spring, whether it has experienced wind and rain or snow, to time will grow like bells of paulownia flowers to shake up the elm money in the village, shake up the grain mixed in the front of the house behind the house, shake the wild vegetables in the field outside the village, At that time, although there was not too much food, but these unpolluted natural foods filled the gap, life was passable, but also added a lot of fun to our childhood.

But now I not only lament today's environment, but also feel the pressure of carrying some money through this ancient city, trying to hide in no corner, touching the vicissitudes of those cypress trees, and every brick and tile in the temple, so that I can feel better. I read the inscriptions of half the city and the thoughts of one city, but I felt even more confused, not knowing whether I lived in the ancient or the present, which one was better.

Suddenly a scene made me throbb, although the flowers of the paulownia tree under the wall had fallen for the most part, and the purple remnants could not escape the fact that the incense was destroyed by the jade, but several rural sisters-in-law squatted in the corner of the wall and peddled bags of tender grain, but they attracted a lot of urban elderly people to buy and laugh happily, although their silver hair and this fallen flower had a slight wound, but their graceful and luxurious figures and rosy cheeks I think they should not lack food, why are they still loyal to these wilds.

This long-lost laughter I found that there were several old people with tears flashing in the corners of their eyes, and they seemed to have rendered this long-lost happiness into the sky, as if it was brilliant this season, and as if it was brilliant every spring when paulownia blossomed.

However, they did not expect that these tender grains would be picked up on the garbage.

Image source network, invasion and deletion

author

Pen name: Wen Fang, we firmly believe that unswerving, in order to last a long time; we firmly believe that the literary revival is today!

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