Blackberry Pie

On our little farm on Forsythe Road

We had quite a menagerie 

Chickens, rabbits, cows, pigs, and pets with names 

Like Nipper, Montenegro, and Fancy

A thicket stood along the back fence line 

It must’ve been ten feet tall

When it’s berries turned from pink to black

We’d try to pick them all

Those summers were fun ones

Without much supervision 

Baseball cards and Matchbox cars

Andy Griffith on television

Sleeping in, then cooking eggs

Sunny-side-up like mom taught us

Then straight to the Atari

Which Santa Claus had brought us

Defender and Pitfall 

And other games we liked to binge

Like Defender and Centipede

Galaxian and Yar’s Revenge

It was a summer free-for-all

We did what we wanted to do

Backyard sports and BB guns

Sprinklers and bicycles too

And just before our mom got home

We’d race to clean the place up a little

Or she might not make us brownies

Or her famous peanut brittle

But best of all was the unmistakable smell

Of buttery crust wafting through the sky

And the fruits of our labor realized

In mom’s delicious blackberry pie!

By Royce Waxenfetler

12/19/19