Wild Berries

      _{As a child I’d walk with Nana and Grampop}

_{on the trails behind the cabin.}

_{In the heat of summer}

_{we’d find the bushes}

_{laden with tart wild berries.}

_{We collected them as we walked,}

_{one for the basket,}

_{one, two for my mouth.}

_{Dappled sunlight fell on our faces and hands}

_{as Nana exhorted me to restraint}

_{during the harvest,}

_{“We have sugar and cream}

_{back in the cabin.”}

_{As a child I’d watch Mom-mom}

_{stir the boiling elderberries}

_{Pop-pop had gathered for jam.}

_{I watched him squeeze the cooled berries} 

_{through the cheesecloth,}

_{the purple-black juice tracing}

_{the veins on his forearms.}

_{I once asked to have some berries}

_{before they went in the pot,}

_{“No, girl. They’ll give you a bellyache.}

_{They need the heat.”}

_{As a woman I moved to the woods}

_{with my husband and children.}

_{I remembered the wild berries,}

_{searched my property}

_{and found none.}

_{I called the berries in the wilderness.}

_{They did not answer.}

_{There were sour years,}

_{Years of pain and quarrel,}

_{Years of heat and squeezing,}

_{Years when I so desperately wished}

_{I could speak with my grandparents,}

_{the men and women who}

_{had survived Depression and War}

_{and broken promises.}

_{I wanted}

_{to sit at their feet and ask,}

_{“Where is the sweetness?”}

_{In want of quiet and healing}

_{I returned to the wooded paths,}

_{inhaled the piney air,}

_{let the brook water wash my toes,}

_{dried my feet on the moss,}

_{listened to the birdsong,}

_{warmed my face in the leaf-filtered sunlight.}

_{When my heart was at rest}

_{the berries were waiting for me.}

_{They whispered,}

_{“We have come.}

_{We are here,}

_wild

_{and free.”}