Of apples and autumn
It’s a rough draft. It came out of a free-write and still feels like prose wearing poetry’s shoes. But it’s my response to the Poem-a-Day prompt #5: a growth poem.
Of Apples and Autumn and Small Boys in Love With Horses
I choke on the calendar like an apple
I tried to get down in one bite when
even the horse knows to break it
open, crush it to a juicy softness
before swallowing. We have brought
her orchards of apples autumn after
autumn. You used to roll them under
the fence, and when you press now
your fingers together and reach out
over the fence, apple balanced in your
outstretched palm like an offering,
I realize that you have grown tall.
I try to count autumns, the apples
that have crossed this fence line.
The horse lips it from your palm,
bites it open with a crack, drools
saliva and apple juice. You pat her muzzle,
she sniffs around for another apple.
Finding none, she bends her neck to the grass.
You walk up the road towards home.
One Response to “Of apples and autumn”
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This is beautiful!