Mulberry Tree

Written by Joseph Teti

This tree I knew grew in a plot of ground
surrounded by cement about her base,
with just a couple feet to drink the rains,
imprisoned on one side with plastic fence,
the other side shadowed by a huge house
which left her little sky to hug the sun;
yet still in summertime her mulberries
would pour down on the sidewalk like a flood,
drenching the dusty path in dark, rich juice
fresh from the living sap and verdant leaves,
full sweet enough for ants and bees to sip;
while grackle, starlings, sparrows, mourning doves,
wrens, robins, catbirds, buntings (blue and brown),
cardinals, finches, flickers—all thronged there
within her supple limbs throughout those days,
enjoying her plush fruits and green shade, singing.

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Joseph Teti is an emerging writer from Hyattsville, MD, and an MA/PhD candidate in English at The Catholic University of America. His poetry has appeared in the Rialto Books Review, Clayjar Review, As Surely as the Sun, Foreshadow, Solid Food Press, and others. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College and a fierce defender of Platonism and Romanticism.