Tour of a Salmonberry

A salmonberry is a

luminous spiral,

a golden basket

woven of sunshine,

water, and birdsong.

I’m told that the birds

sing so sweet because

of all the berries they eat,

and that show you

can have a sweet voice too.

In my Native language,

the word for salmonberry

is Alile’. In Sanskrit, Lila means

God plays. Salmonberries

sometimes look that way.

Every year they debut,

spectacular in the landscape,

worthy of their genus name—

Rubus spectabilis, meaning,

red sight worth seeing.

Each drupelet holds a seed

and the shimmering secret

kept by rain—of how to rise,

float above the earth, feel

the sun, and return.