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Harvesting the Beach Berries
Haworth Hodgkinson
The tractor pulls heavily,
the caravan following,
tunnelling into the sand,
and all around,
the finger-stained fruit hunters
dig for hidden treasure
amongst the worms and the wire weed.
None would expect to find buried pineapples;
half a dozen raspberry leaves
in a basket tied up with string
would be enough to relieve the pain.
The driver meanwhile,
in shorts and sunglasses,
smoking a rolled-up newspaper
and studying his sandwiches,
loses a moment’s concentration
and steers his tractor
into the sea.
The fruit hunters add
sea strawberries
to their harvest.
Written 1996
Revised 2000/2006
Published in
There's a Poem in My Soup, 2007
(Koo Press)
and in Tractor Bastard,
2012
(Malfranteaux Concepts)
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