Spring Strawberries | Natalie Marino

On a blue June morning 

in your last spring 

it is warm 

and we share soft 

strawberries 

as the sun changes 

the fruits into aging rubies, 

making us drink 

the sad sweetness of it all. 

I don’t know 

we can’t make 

your world last longer. 

After the winds of summer 

blow away even the stars 

in your suitcase 

I will think of you 

eating the last strawberries 

of the year and swimming 

in shortcakes.

Natalie Marino is a poet, physician, and mother. Her work appears in Barren Magazine, Bitter Oleander, Dust Poetry Magazine, EcoTheo Review, Kissing Dynamite Poetry, Leon Literary Review, Literary Mama, Midway Journal, Moria Online, and elsewhere. She was named a finalist in SweetLit’s 2021 poetry contest. Her micro-chapbook, Attachment Theory, is forthcoming (Ghost City Press, Summer 2021). She lives in California.