My mother is picking mulberries again.
Yes, the real thing. I know
I always thought they were mythical
and that they grew on bushes only
in children’s books and nursery rhymes,
exalted every May Day
and used to teach children
basic hygiene and household chores
in melody.
The ripe ones are edible, you know,
and they grow in huge trees.
Who would have thought it? Not I. They are
baked into 4th-of-July firecracker pies
and used to add tartness to tea.
But unripe mulberries are toxic
and can cause wild hallucinations—
a fairytale poison apple,
the big bad wolf and pixie dust.
Children’s books do not teach us that.
Yet, this is the truth about mulberries.
-
Eric
