A Raspberry Volunteer

by Robert Eliot

Once ten feet off the ground
Where the limbs of a maple met,
A seed of a raspberry found
Its sturdiest resting place yet
And courage to send up a shoot.
It ran down a thread of a root,
Uncrinkled a leaflet or two,
And took its diminutive share
Of sunshine and compost and dew,
Content with the growing there
And with the advantage it gained
Being higher than mice would dare
And closer than most when it rained.

Robert Eliot writes poetry and teaches school.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy