"Blackberry Eating" (Galway Kinnell) Took my redneck self to early summer, Late June, Montana sun, and shimmering humidity Aboard a tractor droning over fields, Uprooting green, turning the acres brown Atop a table rimmed in badlands.
Remembering past Junes' Berry thickets in cool ravines, I left the tractor idling To cross barbed wire, To descend into cool trees.
June berries everywhere; Blue-black sweetness weighted branches. I stained my face and hands with plunder, Then plundered and filled my upturned cap.
Grazing and grasping, The copse's edge I turned To meet a coyote on two legs Berry browsing.
Who yelped, and who screamed? At the top of the bank, I turned; My cap and berries scattered, The coyote's tail down as he left the scene.