The Blackberry Tree

THE BLACKBERRY TREE

embraced the ground
under its shawl of leaves and berries.
Its scent was the final
element of its perfection.

The ground, sprinkled with the tree's fruit,
fed ants, worms, busy beetles
and anything that deemed to live
in the leaves' magnificent shadow.

As a child I ventured
under those mighty branches,
a six-year-old brat,
nosy, seeking adventure.

Shielded from the sun, in this backyard
kingdom of smashed berries and broken twigs,
I feared the tree's grained bark
with its disease of carved lines.

Later I would learn
the bark was normal,
the stepped-on berries were not blood.
Later I would learn

the world needed more places
as simple as this shelter
where apprehension canceled itself
and meditation was born.

Austin Alexis
New York, NY
American Red Cross