sidelight
ray heinrich
the nettle and the sweetbriar still grow
back behind where my mom grew raspberries
all i have to do is keep away from the nettles
and get close enough to smell the sweetbriar
and i’m busy filling my soup cans again
and the more i pick the more jam mom can fix
but my stupid little brother uses his cans for drums
“mom! he’s getting dirt in the cans again!”
“there’s plenty of cans son, you just keep picking”
and i do (though i can’t help eating a few)