She's not angry exactly but all business, br eating them right off the tree, with confidence, br the kind that lets her spit out the bad ones br clear of the sidewalk into the street. It's br sunny, though who can tell what she's tasting, br rowan or one of the serviceberries-- br the animal at work, so everybody, br save the traffic, keeps a distance. She's picking br clean what the birds have left, and even, br in her hurry, a few dark leaves. In the air br the dusting of exhaust that still turns pennies br green, the way the cloudy surfaces br of things obscure their differences, br like the mock orange or the apple rose that br cracks the paving stone, rooted in the plaza. br No one will say your name, and when you come to br the door no one will know you, a parable br of the afterlife on earth. Poor grapes, poor crabs, br wild black cherry trees, on which some forty-six br or so species of birds have fed, some boy's dead br weight or the tragic summer lightning killing br the seed, how boyish now that hunger br to bring those branches down to scale, br to eat of that which otherwise was waste, br how natural this woman eating berries, how alone.