Blueberry Medicine in the Highlands

The Highlands

Bumblebees and others pollinators making blueberry medicine

The Highlands are always a special place

But in early August they take on a different magnetism

Where bears and mammals and animals of all sizes

ascend from the woods to our Appalachian balds

Birds chirp closer in territorial hostility

and even more people from all around

come for a taste of sweet blueberries and huckleberries

They come with buckets, jugs, bags, and eager tongues

Some driven by simple survival

Some with pancake dreams

Commencing to pick

We look for the plumpest of the plump

Those barely hanging on

Gobbling as many down as we collect

Wise spiders build webs amidst them

and we are amidst a much bigger one

I grab a clump of 7 perfectly ripe in a tight cluster

and somehow feel a small victory

And can’t help but grin

hoping it happens again

You can spend 30 minutes on one bush

And look out and see more than one can fathom

I’m viscerally reminded of the necessity of the wild

And I’m viscerally reminded of the chlorophyllic magic

of sustenance provided by the land

Of sunlight converted to sweet sugars

and vitamins and antioxidants

And untold compounds

that also nourish the soul.