I'm going to tell you some things that are True about blackberries. You'll recognize this Verity immediately, even if you never eat them, jar Or bake them, even if the last time was as a child in August; Hot and thirsty in the prickly bushes, reaching over-under To discover wet, dark beauty falling to your dusty hands. Jealous birds racketing over adjacent fields, bees in clover Eyeing tinted fingers, stained glass mouth; snakes avoidance Of you: Ecstatic, sun-soaked heir to stolen heaven. Home- ways, many hours later, mother asking "Why are your clothes Bloody?" Only then, you see what skin has paid; With scratches shown, You start to feel a stinging; For the first time in your life you know Temptation has a taste, passion has a sharp edge, for the first time You're aware how love will be: warm and sweet, thorny and divine.
~CRH September 2012
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