Blackberrying

One of those gorgeous warm September days
perfect for picking blackberries on the Heath.

We're all vagrants snatching at the hedge,
grabbing the plumpest fruit.

Oak leaves colour pink and gold,
acorns bunch - clusters of bright black

elderberries catch the eye,
rosehips bulge, longing to be pulled

but we're only here to take blackberries.
My fingers and mouth bruise

from the juice I surreptitiously
suck and lick away. Bare arms

snag with brambles a dozen times
for each prize, often not worth

the scratch and tear. How stunted
and deformed the berries are!

Sometimes nature doesn't work,
sometimes it takes a pill to jerk the leaden

psyche into overdrive.
Sometimes you have to fumble.

-- Karen Green