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Adam DeutschAdam Deutsch’s full-length collection, Every Transmission, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press in 2023. His has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Juked, AMP Magazine, Ping Pong, and Typo, and has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He teaches in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives in San Diego, CA.
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Blackberries
Walls of them established along most roads.
We’re stuck at the red, run to the shoulder and pick
at the deepest ones. And it’s Wendell Berry’s birthday.
The morning of the Fishing Derby, heat sweating off
the lake’s face. Pads rest the surface,
and my kicking to stay in layers
that have held onto some sun.
Examine this hook at the end of a line,
the one hidden in a lure’s rubber,
a worm forced to hold a sharp spine.
I can’t bait it, nor cast it out. This misery
of a catch, and release some life
with a hole in a face that wasn’t made
that way, then to leave, like nothing
happened. Nothing happened can’t happen.
The lake knows this. The glacier doesn’t mourn.
The fists are like berries brought beyond
nature’s frame. We brought you into this lake,
say tackle boxers, and we’ll take you out,
as if not punch drunk, as if hands aren’t wet.
We’re stuck at the red, run to the shoulder and pick
at the deepest ones. And it’s Wendell Berry’s birthday.
The morning of the Fishing Derby, heat sweating off
the lake’s face. Pads rest the surface,
and my kicking to stay in layers
that have held onto some sun.
Examine this hook at the end of a line,
the one hidden in a lure’s rubber,
a worm forced to hold a sharp spine.
I can’t bait it, nor cast it out. This misery
of a catch, and release some life
with a hole in a face that wasn’t made
that way, then to leave, like nothing
happened. Nothing happened can’t happen.
The lake knows this. The glacier doesn’t mourn.
The fists are like berries brought beyond
nature’s frame. We brought you into this lake,
say tackle boxers, and we’ll take you out,
as if not punch drunk, as if hands aren’t wet.
