Dana Street in February
Lee Miriam Whitman-Raymond

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I found the bush I spoke to you about, its branches

white, bare knuckles where no new shoots grow

and at each tip, a grudging spray of berries.

I picked a sprig, remembering

at four I pinched such berries fretfully,

rolling the stones between my untried fingers.

No give between the berry’s skin

and pit. Today I will not call for the long dead

but think of you, sad

unnamed friend,

before we met,

roaming these streets in February,

noting the hedgerows that separate

each family and bend

with their unforgiving fruit.

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Lee Miriam Whitman-Raymond is writer and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapist in Pawtucket RI and Blackstone MA. She has won prizes and published poems in numerous literary journals such as Knee Brace, Paddle Boat, Worcester Magazine, Worcester Review, Bridges, and others. Her MFA from Brown University also earned the University First Prize for her thesis, and her book of poems, The light on our faces and other poems was published in 2009 by Pleasure Boat Studio. She has also published articles on the issue of recognition in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, and in the International Journal of Self Psychology, as well as an article on issues of class in Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She just published a family memoir (2023, Newman Springs Publishing) with her daughters and husband on raising a child with a rare genetic disorder. When not working, she is either playing guitar and singing or admiring her new grandson.