the mulberry bush
the monkey chased
the weasel… Is the bush
the same as the tree?
Like the ones they planted
across the street from
751 Appleberry Drive
where the only time
I saw my mother cry
one night, sitting against
the trunk of a mulberry tree.
They grow really fast
which explains why they
were planted next to the walkway.
To me, they were trash trees,
if you tried to climb them
the branches broke off,
even the the thick ones.
I found out later they have
the leaves that silk caterpillars eat.
And that redeemed them.
I like silk. I have some made
from their lives and efforts.I have
eaten the caterpillars after
they were steamed out the
cocoons from which
silk thread is spun.
They taste like potatoes.
I don’t knoow why Mom
left the house that night,
except that it had something
to do with Dad. She wouldn’t say.
Just told me that she was okay,
go back home. I didn’t go home,
I went out into the dark schoolyard
and looked up at the stars.
I could see a lot more of them
away from the streetlights
and houselights. Starlight
and the black silhouettes
of oaks, bay laurels, and madrones
the kind of trees whose branches
don’t break when you climb them.
