One hiker said they were Sumac,
another said Mountain Ash—
those brilliant red clusters of berries
bedecking Mount Roberts’ summit.

And I assume one of the hikers
was correct, the other incorrect,
by the canons of dendrologists;

but why not let both be as right
as Adam, when Jehovah brought
all creation to his darling Man,
to see what he would call them.

As Adam as the next man, I
might name them Look At These:
O glory, to have looked at these
with the bluer berries of my eyes!

I might name them everything
a year brings forth before it dies;

that one so small in the scheme
would place in your two hands,
if you held them out to me today—

you, who are all things
God himself has yet to name.

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