STOLEN STRAWBERRIES

That July
the strawberry pickers
touched Souls

as they laboured
side-by side,
wearing fingers to the bone.

They discovered, then,
a new dimension
within the berry.

The voluptuous redness
of swollen fruit
which filled the baskets
set fire to their hormones:

what just moments ago
seemed a humdrum
means of survival,

now brought the revelation
that even here,
in a humble strawberry field,
such passion could take root.

The fruits glistened in the afternoon sun.
It had taken such energy
to collect and pack so many.

United by a single thought,
urgently, in silence,
they stole a basket and slipped away
into the coolness of a hedgerow
that bordered the field...



At dawn, a half-empty basket
alone knew the secret of their frantic screwing
in the prickly undergrowth.

Concealing scratched skin beneath coveralls,
they took their places
on opposite sides of the field,
where they waited patiently
for the morning shift to begin.