Crouched in the blackberry bramble by Raymond A. Foss
Surrounded by prickers, thorns tugging on my coat, my jeans lowering myself to the dark small fruit gathering in, berry by sweet tart wet berry scratches growing, a burgundy stain on eager fingertips A family of five, with pails and bowls, short on patience, gatherers as of old of a simpler, primal age, finding food in the wild, untamed, uncultivated, natural state crouched in the blackberry bramble collecting tiny gems, tasty pearls swatting at mosquitoes that stalked us watching for the safety, the whereabouts of younger, fitful pickers, eager for fruit, not the quest, the search, under leaves, under branches, the clusters hidden shrouded from the view, sight of less tenacious Gather them in, them all in, for the pie the reward we seek, at the end of the work the true fruits of our labors.