Today’s poem for Paul Brookes’ poetry challenge is inspired by all three artworks. You can see them and read all the contributions here.

The blackberry way

Who would have thought the path
would be so unkind, unfair?

Walking in the light reveals the poison
in the shadows, the hedges full of things
we must not touch, the tempting fruits
that turn to dust on the tongue.

Where did it go, the dream,
or was it only ever duty,
bow the head and avert the gaze?

I stop my ears to the muttered
menace, the sterile warnings
that birth only bitterness
and the thin line of lips.

I will walk in the light among
all that drips and creeps,
and what is sweet, I will taste,

like the blackbird tastes,
pays with a song
and moves on.