Homemade Jelly

 First I wanna tell you the all time number one
supreme ruler and winner of the red ribbon
for record breaking best music in my house
and that’s the ‘ping’  ‘ting’ ‘tick’ ‘tock’ ‘pock’
sounds of homemade jelly cooling in the jars
the jars cooling off shrinking the air inside
so’s the sealer lids get snapped down tight

Course by that time the kitchen is like to burst
so swole up with all those smells swapping around
it’s enough to confuse the most experienced of noses
like it was this weekend in my cabin in the woods
after I’d boiled and bottled high bush cranberry jelly
followed up with radiant red raspberry jelly and then
chokecherry jelly so strong it was pertnear black

And since I’m doing this in the month of March
I’m getting to replay all the fine outside hours
I put in last August and September and October
under a cacophony of raucous ducks and geese
sharing the berry patches with fat-sleek bears
My dog got such a snoot-full of warm bear all he
wanted was to race me to the truck, git gone

I’m thinking too about my grandson and granddaughter
getting to the age where they could be picking berries
how much I’d love to take them out in the bush with me
sharing the secrets of the berry people with them
where to find them, when to wait, how best to pick them
and how to lick your berry mustache with your berry tongue
after you bite into your berry jelly smeared berry bread

I’ll tell you what, you twist some arms on global warming
so my grandkids have some kinda future to look forward to
them and the rest of world’s mushrooming mob of grandkids
who are all going to need clean air, water, and food to eat
You do whatever you can do, kick a little butt if need be
I’ll take your kids out berry picking and we’ll make jelly
at your house and listen to the music as the jars cool down

I declare that this poem is my own work entirely and that I hold all publishing rights to it. I give Powell River Live Poets’ Guild the right to send my poem to President Obama on the occasion of his inauguration on January 20, 2009 and to publish this poem as part of “Poems for Obama from Canada” collection (or similar title) without any compensation beyond crediting me with authorship. Jim Green