Bittersweet
(or What’s in a Name?)
He climbed down the bank
alongside the canal
to cut some bittersweet
with his penknife
for me
We in our sixties and dare I say
bittersweet years? Diabetes
taxing his heart
Me, devising meals for a diabetic
He braves the bank
slippery from rain
and carries as many gnarly twigs
as he can in one arm
reserving one arm for climbing
back over the railing
A brier I love for its colors,
slight disclosure of its red berry,
(The way our passion is muted
and kept under wraps)
as much as for its name –
bittersweet
Out of favor with gardeners
moving in and strangling
their favored plantings
bittersweet seems to find pleasure
in pleasing him pleasing me
©2019 Muriel
Thumm