Dewberries

He was old enough to explore the fields

no longer needing line of sight supervision

which is how he came across the

span of wild dewberries hugging the earth.

They belonged to no one, which allowed them

to belong to him.  He carried his baseball

cap full of bleeding berries back to his mother.

She was delighted and gave the boy

a large pan and instructions to harvest more

berries, describing what made the fruit ripe

and warning the boy to watch for snakes.

The warning turned this chore into an

adventure, this tiny additional danger, this

possibility, however slight, that he could,

maybe, just possibly die in service to his family,

he imagines how they would grieve their loss

of him, how wonderful all this was, and how

much sweeter the cobbler would be if he

managed somehow to survive.