Urban Bounty

In the urban forests serviceberry
are in bloom; they will produce berries
serviceable for consumption in luscious
pies and pastries. In the wild fastness
of the forest, morsels of morels, and
delicate truffles emerge for our
delectation. Wild ginger, garlic, apples,
strawberries, thimbleberries, blueberries
and blackberries make their seasonal
appearance, inviting the initiated to
partake of nature's generous bounty.
Hazelnuts and walnuts, there for
collection, nutmeats complementing
the fresh flesh of fruit meats.

We pampered and oblivious city
dwellers knowing nothing of such
offerings; that which cannot be purchased
is unheard of; we seek the cultivated edibles.
Hybrids, cultivars, nursery-grown botanical
specimens of fruits and vegetables beckon
and appeal to our sense of the correct
order of agricultural production.
Without human and mechanized
intervention that which nature produces
unassisted becomes irrelevant,
beyond notice or commodity value.

Such is the vast distance that has
been erected between humans and the
natural world; commerce and convenience
at sharp profitable odds with the recognition
of waste and neglect of the resources to be
accessed by the intrepid curious,
mindful that nature produced us, not
that humankind produced nature
and her modified foodstuffs.