Brooklyn
Katherine Anderson Howell
Blackberries ripe,
dark, near bursting,
grew from the neighbor’s
brownstone into the courtyard
where we sat with beer,
renovation rubble.
Some casual remark, berries
in the city. I remembered
my grandparents’ Mississippi
yard, my cousins and I eating
all kinds of wild things:
tiny strawberries, round
blueberries, the drop
of sweet hidden in honeysuckle.
Anna, playing carpenter,
must have seen my hand reach.
Don’t eat them.
Her voice warned:
dry wall dust and dog piss.
Leave them for the birds.
Katherine Anderson Howell writes, works, and parents in Washington, D.C. A multi-genre writer, she has published work in places as varied as The Rumpus, the Journal of Fandom Studies, Gargoyle, and Women in Higher Education. She is the editor of Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide forthcoming from University of Iowa Press. She believes selfies are one of the highest forms of self-love, and takes at least one a day.