AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Apples and Blackberries

Apples and blackberries for the taking,
Waiting by the roadside,
Waiting for the right person to come along,
One who loves their appearance, fragrance and taste.

Most pass them by without a glance,
Unaware of their roadside presence,
Focused on some other urgent task.

Many consider them a backdrop for their life,
As they consider most everything a backdrop
For a life they have not yet lived.

The apples and blackberries don’t seem to mind.
Yet as one person reaches out
To taste and savor them,
I hear fruit everywhere say “yes!”

Donnel Lester

Assumptions

I thought I understood
What you meant,
But I didn’t.

I thought you meant
That I didn’t know
What I was doing,
But you didn’t.

Then I reacted to
What I thought you meant,
Even though you didn’t.

You thought I was being critical,
Though I wasn’t,
And I reacted to your defensiveness,
All because I didn’t understand
What you meant.

It went downhill from there.
So much for ignorant assumptions.

Please forgive me.

Donnel Lester
November 2004