We tried mulberries together for the first time
that day that the air was tinged by the scent of summer’s edge—
floral musk and the smell of budding violets, the color of dusk

They dangled from the tree that hung across the canopied road
Collections of the fallen mulberries clung to the pavement

I hand-picked two for us,
a dripping sweet one for me
and a purpley tart one for you,

You said this was your first time
You’d never tasted a mulberry,
a boysenberry,
a dewberry

I said I’d clear fields for you
to taste the world
You said we’d yield a garden together

I sprouted berry seeds in glass jars
on my apartment windowsill
I burrowed sprouts in fertile soil

She made you a grocery-store bakery
mulberry pie
and you
ate it
from
her palm

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Natalie Duphiney is a graduate student of English, studying at the University of West Florida. She loves rabbits, writing, and choral singing.