Still Life with Earthquake Weather and Blueberries
Since its last fruit we’ve been consumed. Still, without
pruning, sawdust mulch, or glance, our bush came back.
Just-picked berries hold the heat of our son’s cheeks,
sobbing. Still. All along he’s said he wants to live.
Natasha Trethewey chose Jennifer Richter’s first collection Threshold as a winner in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry; her second collection, No Acute Distress, was a Crab Orchard Series Editor’s Selection, and both books were named Oregon Book Award Finalists. Work from her third manuscript, The Really Big One, has been featured in ZYZZYVA, The Los Angeles Review, and The Missouri Review. Richter teaches in Oregon State University’s MFA program. All summer, you can find her eating homemade blueberry pie for breakfast.
