What's Left to Do After Eating Blueberries

A poem by Carolyn Martin

Apologize to the ants

caught in the blue fibers

of the blue cotton cloth

you used to swipe them up

with the lone blueberry

splatted on the floor.

You lost its landing site

but, more astute, they smelled

their way to breakfast

on the juicy bliss of blue.

Now, under an accusing blue sky,

you shake them over

blue squills and crocuses

that chide, They did nothing wrong.

Unlike the time you lied

and lied about the blue smudges

on your homework sheet.

I didn’t erase, you cried

to the first-grade nun

with the no-erasing rule

who spied the obvious.

Or the years blue sadness

overwhelmed when you broke

vows you’d invested decades in.

Today, there’s nothing left

to do but go inside. Brush

your blue tongue and blue teeth.

Chide the face mirroring you,

People do what people do.

Apologies are pointless

on any blue Monday,

under any blue moon.

Hear Carolyn read her poem:

What's Left to Do After Eating BlueberriesCarolyn Martin

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After 16 years in academia and 24 in business, Carolyn Martin has spent the last 15 playing with poetry. Although she’s become addicted to submissions and declines, she is amazed that her work has appeared in over 200 publications throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Learn more at CarolynMartinPoet.com.

Image of blueberries by Joana Stolowicz