The Second Poem

                         Aleksei  Belikh, Russian painter in his studio

The Second Poem April 10, 2022

The strawberries wait for me to clean them

and put them in the freezer. Janet brought

them back from Down East. I’m not doing

much work these day, but here are many

quarts of ripe, red strawberries, and my work

waits. They wait. I’m up early again because

I slept early. A little at a time, I’ll manage.

It might take me all day. I can’t fit that

big basket into the refrigerator, but slowly,

a quart at a time, I can take the stems off

and rescue them. What a gift. The first

strawberries. Help me save them. I’ve

missed them these months. There’s time.

They’re still okay.

I can do a lot of things slowly.