Blackberries
Wild blackberries
on the tongue
on the tongue
all sweet stain
and full of stones,
and full of stones,
black as blood
among the thorns.
I came to worship
but I stayed to think.
I came to eat
but you had only drink:
a river of salt
to wash the sweet away,
and a flood of ink
to black out the day.
~June 2013
55 wild ripe berries of Rubus fruticosus for the g-man
Hover mouse for image attribution or click on pic to visit photographer's flick'r page.
Talk about too much of a good thing; either they won't talk at all, or there are so many words that they blot out all meaning. That river of salt might preserve something though...I'm just not sure I'd want to taste what it saves.
ReplyDeletewhew that became a shiver quite quickly...i rather love blackberries...not sure they would have the same taste after this though...like what you did with the eat/sweet, away/day rhymes....
ReplyDeleteI must be eating different blackberries...
ReplyDeleteThere you go tugging at ole G-Man's heart strings
ReplyDeleteWith the Latin Genus ( sniff )....
You had me lovin blackberries for a hot NY minute,
Then it became obvious they are The Devil's Roe!!
Loved your Dark and Seedy 55
Thanks for your weekly Touch of Class
Have a Kick Ass Week End.... G
Yes, as always, the Devil must have his fruit pie. Thanks G, and much ass-kickingness your way.
DeleteMmmm, blackberries. "All sweet stain/And full of stones." You may have displaced the pomegranate as the fruit of Dis with this... Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI came to worship but II stayed to think is a very powerful line. (Although I have to say that I have done and do a great deal of blackberrying in my life, and I only worship!) Still, it's a wonderful poem - I especially love the uses of the ink - what else will blot out a stain - better than bleach. k.
ReplyDeleteI am so out of the loop that when I went to look up pics for this poem, I was amazed to see thousands of photos of smart phones. ;_) The innuendo does work, and I guess I prefer ink to bleach, after all. Thanks, k.
DeleteThat is very funny. (In a nice way.) k.
Deleteruns around the room in circles spraying chocolate sauce everywhere...i won...i won...
ReplyDeletesmiles.
I'm just grateful it's not unicorns.
DeleteLove how you ended this, hedgewitch. This brought back a memory of blackberry picking with my Mom and my daughter (when she was about 10)...such a fun day! :)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI know this gut (ahem) he used to worship the vine god. and he became deranged by the ink flood and many-a-day turned black (painted by pints of purple)he spoke to fairies via the Blackberry magic and it was rough BUT black magic is still magic and if I remember rightly, which I don't, he even attempted to achieve spiritual parity by dousing himself in white cider which was ridiculous when he was already soaked in white wine (what a doosh!:) anyways I came to worship
but I stayed to think ;)
It's a terrible fate for a Muse, to be drowned in purple prose.And Black Magic seems to be the only functional magic in our current state of de-vanced civilization, despite your memory core issues. I speak to the fairies all too often myself, but so far, they only answer in runes of odd acronyms and bits of tattered punctuation. Thanks, A--always love it when you come to read and stay to talk.
Deletesweet stain
ReplyDeleteindeed. When I was a day away from delivering my third child, our puppy got loose and I had to chase it way, way out back of the field. I was barefoot. Well, there were black berry bushes or something like that and I squish, squish (and swore a bit) my way through them.
It wasn't a pretty sight with my feet in those darn hospital stirrups :)
Ouch! (Though no one is a pretty sight in those stirrups, I would think, even if you just had a $200 pedicure) What a prelude to the birthing drama! Did they ask if you were Italian and doing a grape-treading number??
DeleteHa ha. No, they didn't ask if I was Italian.. although the baby I had WAS my "dark" child.. she looks far more Slovak than English. She could probably pass as Italian ... and she loves wine. :)
DeleteHmmm maybe some hidden Italian in the gene pool? O well--childbirth is Nature's little way of showing you just how much your body can freak you out, anyway, so what's a little purple on the toes? (obviously ultimately in a good way, but still...)
DeleteBeautifully done, balanced between edginess and cosiness.
ReplyDeleteLatin and berries go together- but not the crazy Nun who taught us!
ReplyDeleteGood poem-yum!
Very cool poem. Blackberries are a very contrary fruit.
ReplyDeleteFlash 55 - Revenge by Chance
I would commit felonies and vote Republican to have written this!
ReplyDeleteFelonies fine, but not THAT!!! I refuse to claim responsibility for such a horror. ;_) Thanks, MZ.
DeleteStellar! I'll take salt over sweet any day.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful poem!
ReplyDeleteI love the progression of this poem from the sweet juice to the salt river and finally the black ink - and a poet's task complete.
ReplyDeleteAnd to the organic market now. I have no choice - you've bewitched the memory into my buds. I tried lemon water but that only sharped the crave.
ReplyDelete