Apple Orchard | Teen Ink

Apple Orchard

January 13, 2013
By GabsDelRey SILVER, Amawalk, New York
GabsDelRey SILVER, Amawalk, New York
5 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
&ldquo;If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.&rdquo; <br /> ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh<br /> <br /> &quot;Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn&#039;t stop for anybody.&quot; <br /> &mdash; Stephen Chbosky


Gnarly branches,
shrunken roots,
skeletal trunk,
barely producing apples.

Cut down.
Torn down.
Burned and destroyed.
Dead, dead, dead.
Dying,
but still growing inside.

In desperate need,
of a watering.
In desperate need of love,
of any kind of some TLC.

Gnarled tree,
one or two apples a year,
Not rotten,
Not golden.
Just red and bumpy.
They’re real,
so real.

Luscious branches,
long roots,
full of water.
Full of life.

Green leaves,
golden apples.
Alive, alive, alive,
Living.
Too beautiful to be cut,
to be torn,
to be wasted.

Golden apples catch your eye.
“Pick me,” they shout.
“Pick me, eat me.”
You will pick them.


Beautiful tree with golden apples.
Shiny, smooth and fake.
So fake.
Take a bite,
you know you want to.
Dig your teeth in.
It’s rotten inside,
isn’t it?
The outside is beautiful,
but if only you knew what horrors it held,
You would run to the gnarled trees.

Now you say the gnarled trees,
aren’t beautiful.
I say they’re more beautiful than a tree with rotten apples.
At least they’re real.
They have beautiful personalities.
They might be overlooked by others,
unseen.
They’ll shine.
The other trees will peak now,
their branches brushing the clouds.
but the skeletal trees will overcome their death.
They’ll be alive.
They’ll be growing.

I would much rather be wonderful when I’m ready.
I don’t want to be golden.
I just want to be me.
I am not your stereotypical,
golden apple.


The author's comments:
I was inspired to write this poem from a picture I saw on iFunny. It was a golden apple, with a piece bitten out of it, exposing the apple's rotten insides. It's caption was "Appearance and Personality". When our English teacher asked the class to write poems, I wanted to do something about beauty. I started with an "I am" poem, but that didn't work, and then I remembered the picture, and used that idea for my poem. I want people to understand that someone can be beautiful on the outside, and ugly on the inside.

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