Cuttlebone and Cobwebs

Fruit Abundant

Crab apples make the finest jelly

crimson pots of pure delight,

blackberries colour theirs mauve purple,

rowan smokey marmalade bright.

Barberry, if you ever find them,

sadly, will be but one or two

oblong clustered red-scarlet berries,

perhaps you'd do best to plant a few;

should you get them to fruition

they make a jelly sweet to eat

or perhaps a pickled partner 

for your curried vegetables or meat.

There are the many mini parents

of our garden cultivars;

raspberry, strawberry, pear and goosberry

mixed or singly to fill your jars.

Blackcurrant bushes can be found

grown wild in the hedges,

medlars, escapees from

medieval garden edges,

and, where families once picnicked,

plumbs, pears and damsons grow tall,

nature's seasonal abundances

to feed and enthrall.

Remembering always in your quest,

jellies are merely for us a treat

so, in gathering don't be greedy,

overwintering  birds need them to eat.