August
The beautyberry bush blooms just as school
starts. The green berry cluster comes out
about the time the yellow school bus pulls up.
Summer’s green purples, like the bruise
on my middle-left toe, taped to its buddy.
Suddenly purple takes over my yard,
the neighbors’s yard, the doctor’s office,
the post office. Every where we are hurt
can’t hold back, can’t wait for fall.
Behold, our pain!
Berries unripened, astringent beauty
unharvested.
