Faith Kaltenbach
No, not the river city in Saskatchewan.
Just a tall bush outside my front window.
A juneberry variety called ‘Saskatoon.’
The bush is my wild green view in summer.
It makes a bower of this room.
Small birds hide from hawks.
Delicate spring flowers veil it white.
Then the berries ripen, blue-black and juicy.
Robins zoom down, heavy, hungry.
Their weight bends the twigs.
They fumble, flap and look embarrassed.
I never get enough berries for jam.
The bush hides me from pedestrians.
The HOA board wants to tame it.
Prune it up away from leaf-blowers.
Prune it down. “It’s not a tree.”
Prune it back “to make it tidy.”
Maybe I will move away.
Faith Kaltenbach is 81 years old, a busy grandmother, gardener, reader and writer. She has lived half her life in Pennsylvania and half in New Mexico.