“Apples,” Poem by William Sack

Apples

Poem by William Sack

The sun polishes The ruby luminescence And water droplets Bevel the surface

Blushing and basking In ultimate juvenescence Until picked And pulled from the light

The hungry go scratching Peeling away at the skin And the scarlet goes Plummeting to the ground

Underneath, solidity The color of a distant star Or sand or cream or flesh Or the pages of a book

The flesh is taken too Solidity dismantled Everything returned To dust

But it is sweet And the juice follows The curvature of the jaw

Caressing the cliffside From which it is pushed

Whittled into obscurity Utterly devoured To the core Which is tossed away

And the hungry Go on searching Not knowing The core contained The seeds From which trees Keep growing