A typical experience when I was a child |
MY WALK February 14, 2008 Summer and school's out. Droppings in the birdbath. Sprinklers squirting. Lawns dance with warm-winged Bees. My white ten-year old arms Swing at my thin-clothed sides while I take a walk Past the Katisha's. Red Ball Jets rising and falling Like the easterly wind Down to the corner. Late morning shadows cling tight To Maple boles and Telephone poles Catching humidity in their Black pools. Kibbled stones kick across concrete To rest in the deep soil. I enter the woods On the parent-free, adventure-rich Side of the street. Dragonflies Whirl, flit, dart The air buzzes. I fill my container full of Blackberries. I hold it like a Treasure Past the sumac spears Through the purple clover, Spiders spinning. Ponds roil under Berry boughs Bobbing in thickets surrounding the Meadow. Twigs snap. Birds, Startled, wing away. I step on a rock, Slip, velvet shoes soaked, Matted like a wet mutt's fur. Now empty berry container, Polar-white, falls like a star To the soggy ground. Splash! Disappears into the muddy pond. My Callow heart quakes. Eyes fill. Lips tremble. Shaking, Head back, I cry out. "Nooooooo!" Sickened, I watch the rim open like A mouth, swallow the Murky water. The berries sink down Down as I lament the Sweet surprise I had planned For my breakfast. |