I wanted this to be like a fairy tale walk in the woods before kids, careers, blood clots and bone mets...
I wanted this to be like a fairy tale
walk in the woods before kids,
careers, blood clots and bone mets,
the legend of a week we picked
berries near an old inn on a village
green, rolled out butter crusts,
folded in Callibeault, and arranged
fruit in circles and stars like symbols
Merlin’s cape. Years gone with a wave
of a wand, forests on fire, Greenland
melting, radiation drizzling from Japan,
and we're trapped like children
in a Grimm brother's tale, our parents
dead, guardian angels called in sick,
ventilator moaning, three of us chained
to chairs, the fourth Poseyed to a hospital bed,
our crew waiting for the witch to boil us.
With closed eyes we hold hands,
and I chant the story of the tarts
for the umpteenth time, the smell
of pastry baking, the feel of fruit
and chocolate on our tongues,
wishing the heartbeat of words
might cast a spell strong enough
to bring our world back to life
Dr. Berlin is Senior Affiliate in Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. E-mail: Richard.Berlin@gmail.com. His most recent collection of poetry, PRACTICE, is published by Brick Road Poetry Press.