Strawberry Garden

Hello, Strawberry Garden.
Shuffling slowly through the bushes,
Sound of laughter and talking and stomping feet and rustling leaves and wind and crickets.
Find a clear space where I won’t crush plants.
Crouch down between rows of bushes.
A flash of red, quickly reach for it.
A strawberry.
Fill the bucket.
Smell of mud and leaves and ripe berries and moldy berries and berries crushed under other berries in the bucket.
The bucket.
It quickly fills up.
The sun gets hot, the mud dry, the berries warm.
Bucket half full, don’t crush bushes, weigh the berries.
Goodbye, Strawberry Garden.