Wild Strawberries by Kevin Casey

 

 


 

Kevin Casey is the author of Ways to Make a Halo (Aldrich Press, 2018) and American Lotus, winner of the 2017 Kithara Prize (Glass Lyre Press, 2018). And Waking …was published by Bottom Dog Press in 2016. His poems have appeared in Rust+Moth, Valparaiso Poetry ReviewConnotation Press, Pretty Owl Poetry, and Ted Kooser’s syndicated column ‘American Life in Poetry.’ For more, visit: 

andwaking.com   .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild Strawberries

 

We took the path to the river, and the path

took us: racing, tumbling down to where

the crash of cataracts drowned out the sound

of wind-combed needles with every barefoot

 

slap on the flattened track, rushing between

cobbles and roots that clutched at our feet.

But the snag that caught us was the vermillion

glint of strawberries–tart, ruby cones

 

arcing off runners tucked beneath trefoils.

Hardly a handful, though they seemed a feast–

each tart, abrading spark arranged

for us to find, as the dank river air

 

climbed up the path, impatient. Years later,

and nothing will stop our rushing, though the boughs

still shudder in the breeze the river stirs,

and the water still swirls in endless eddies.

 

Kevin Casey

  

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