pile your strawberries

pile your strawberries
where the birds can't see them.
ripen to turtle hearts.
the bog is calling all the girls down.
a ribbon of algae. warm lake.
geese sewing dresses from old silk.
but you have strawberries 
& no one else can touch them.
place them understones & in
the thoughts of strangers.
a man walking by with a fishing pole 
now thinking "strawberry."
strawberry like colonies of jam.
mother holding out a spoon & saying,
"would you like a taste." i always do.
sweet boiled berries. wearing sugar 
to the school dance. no one else
with a single strawberry. the gym
late at night. strawberry-less.
well, until you arrive with one
tucked behind your ear. there isn't enough
rambling in this world. go on & on
& tell me what you eat when no one else
is looking. don't eat them. not yet.
ripening takes patience. years of cradling.
i was a baby once & my flesh was pulp. 
leaves grew from my skull &
my caretakers would prune them.
we could have been a backyard or a brush.
more strawberries than you need but
that's not true because you always
need more strawberries. sleeping in
a glass bowl in the company of strawberries.
bruising like infants. 
nothing left to do but wait.