Picking Raspberries
by Lisel Mueller

Once the thicket opens

and lets you enter

and the first berry dissolves on your tongue,

you will remember nothing

of your old life. You can stay

in that country of sun and silence

as long as you like. To return,

you have only to look at your arms

and discover the long, red marks.

You will have invented pain,

which has no place there.