Yours Truly 2017 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA 2017 YT Online Book | Page 38

Ripening
. . . a strawberry ripening
is a strawberry close to rot.
— Joyce Carol Oats, “Strawberries”
Catch the sweetness before it turns sickly —
before the fructose ferments in the juicy center,
and the berry caves in on itself like a dangling
wound, barely hanging onto its star-shaped hat
and green vine IV; before it turns dark crimson,
almost brown, with the soft white frost
of mold clinging to the skin like winter.
Now is not the time for waiting — we’ve done enough
of that already this year — with endless gray days
strung like a cotton quilt over the sky and ample rain
saturating the soil, giving certain plants a good rot.
No, now is the time for picking that close-to-ripe
berry just before it turns on you, just before it begins to die.
It’s subtle, so watch for its brightness — a cardinal glow
that seems to come from the inside, a warm brilliance
you’ve been yearning for — feel for its firm density,
its elastic spring-back quality, and believe it will be sweet
before you even place it on your tongue.
36
Courtney Putnam