A Handful of Strawberries

Strawberries, I suggested.
They sounded tasty to me.
He sliced the strawberries diligently
but without much thought.
Careful there, now look;
you've gone and cut yourself a second time.
Damn those silly strawberries anyway.
Here, let me help you,
But dear, does my ointment not taste as sweet?
Ah, kissing your hurt "to make it all better" had the
opposite effect.
He shuddered, and another pair of hands
wrapped his cut in the softest gauze
I had ever seen.
The wrap was so tight and neat
that it seemed to hardly hinder his game of Stratego,
with her.

5/97