Blacker the Berry

Blacker the Berry

Candy coated complexions

stand in milky way fibers

stronger than maple trunks.

Their pronounced veins cross

beneath dark skin

coiled like vines

up the bark of a tree.

Shades of every spice

mix in the salted rain

as sun slides thick

honey down their spines.

Grains of hair

rough like aged brown sugar

melt down a lifted brow

to land on nostrils that

flare proof of the crown.

Shawn R. Jones