The Garden

A strawberry stores the whole seasons
of spring fresh cool and summer sweat heat
into a ripe gift of treason
against the fads of fat salt and grease.

To taste the tart fruit of the flat
green plant, to notice a sweetness hidden,
the red reaching beyond the bounds of itself.
A strawberry stores the whole seasons.

It's enlightenment really, the flower
that teaches a place that honors the self,
that was born in a garden with Adam
of spring fresh cool and summer sweat heat.

We ate what God grew and never knew
we could carve up our friends for dinner.
An apple or pear satiated the senses
as a strawberry stores the whole seasons.

Hey, let's not blame Eve and live the old story;
it was Noah who first ate the beast.
And we're not bereaved of the effect we seek,
I still go to pick a strawberry
that stores the whole seasons of summer and spring
into a moist ripe gift to myself.