oh woe! what is to become of me

I was tagging some of my photographs earlier and came upon a shot of some crapemyrtles. When I label plant photos I like to include the scientific name as a tag . . . just to show off.

So I’m typing up all my tags: “tree plant crapemyrtle auburn winter azalea rhododendron L–”

And when I got to “L–,” I had the loudest, most giantic brainfart this earth has ever experienced.

I forgot the scientific name of crapemyrtle.

“Ohgodohgodohgodohgod,” I think as I flip through the pages of my brain, but all I see is the letter L and a long, fuzzy semblance of a word.

I would like to say that it eventually came to me, that I snapped my fingers after a few seconds with an “Ah-ha!” and continued tagging, confident in my plant knowledge.

But no.

I had to get up and go look at one of my designs on the wall. Oh, the shame of it. And once I saw it I thought, “Oh yeah, how could I forget that?” This is just sad.

My penance is to say three Hail Tradescants and contemplate on the life of Lagerstroemia and chant its name until I never forget it ever, ever again.

Lagerstroemia indica.