Blackberries Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

Rich luscious, bursting with juice
Big as your thumb
Cool from the morning dew
Sweet as only wild berries can be

Vines tall
Thick as a pencil
Barbs everywhere
Quick to catch your clothes
Or draw blood

Leaves tender
Green and dripping with dew
Hiding the berries
Or perhaps a stink bug
Or a tick or a snake

White flowers
Lasting only for a day
Pure white
Open for a visiting bee

Detritus from the past
Rich mold harboring
An untold wealth of
Memories of what has
Come before

This is the battlefield
Where soldiers met
Where cannons blazed
And riffles cracked
Where charge of one side
Met the other
and brave men died.

Memorial Day
Colonial Heights, Virginia