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 Review, Connotation Press, Pretty Owl Poetry, and Ted Kooser’s syndicated column ‘American Life in Poetry.’ For more, visit:
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
