Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries

reading a book

a phrase

without forewarning

drops me into a walk

I took years ago in France.

A woman collecting wild strawberries

extends to me a just picked handful
still keeping stride

my hand returns the reach
 receiving small bursts of sweetness

though the guidebook warns 
of dire results

from eating low-growing fruit 

peed on by foxes

their lush red juices wash my sweaty palm until
around the corner

(erring on the side of safety) 

I toss them back into the fields….. 

5000 miles distant ten years later I taste 

their sweetness still.