You give me cloudberry jam from Lapland,
Bog amber, snow-line tidbits, scrumptious,
Cloudberries sweetened slowly by the cold,
And costly enough for cloudberry wars
(Diplomatic wars, my dear).
Imagine us
Among the harvesters, keeping our distance
In sphagnum fields on the longest day
W hen dawn and dusk like frustrated lovers
Can kiss, legend has it, once a year. Ah,
Kisses at our age, cloudberry kisses.
Michael Longley
