The smell of dew-
wet salal
and Oregon grape
covering the breaks
of alder
and downed
Douglas fir
awakened me
at dawn
on summer mornings,
and I rose alone
to walk along
the rustic road,
oblivious to the
surveyors’ art
of lines and plots,
picking buckets of
blackberries,
returning home,
dog trotted,
purple stained,
and happy
for pie and jam.

Martha Jackson Kaplan, a Pushcart nominee poet and flash fiction writer, has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She’s twice won Poet’s Choice in WFOP’s Triad Contest. Her book Wind Eyes is forthcoming in autumn 2024 from Mad Hat Press. More at http://marthakaplanpoet.com/