Temptation - Poem

Temptation – Poem – Brief Article

Carol Barrett

Temptation

Bringing you a handful of raspberries

I lifted a child’s offering to your own

pale fist, stirring the collander,

cheese cloth already the color of jam,

the air acrid with sweet pulp. Raspberry

is the only stain that stays, will not

purple in the evening light, seeds hard

as mustard. I remember the froth pinking

at the edges, as if mating cotton candy

and snow cone, the warning it would burn

my tongue salt red. We stay such impulses

with trial: stained hands return

to the berry patch, ripe lobes falling

from pith. The young hold to the stem,

squeeze honeycomb cells, while sparrows

drop seedy pink splotches on the drive.

I make another hollered entrance through

the kitchen door, soaked with fruit

mouth fuchsia with discovery, your apron

billowing for a damp hand, its exquisite

cherry joy. Thus we learn the plump

lessons of the vine, the urge to gulp,

the raspberry smell of savor. Jelly

cools beneath a creamy paraffin lid.

In the glass: our berried youth.

Temptation – Poem