“Apple” © Digby Beaumont

 

Apple

Don’t finger me for the trouble
in that fetid garden.
Blushing dewy, I was
hanging off a branch, per usual.
A lot has happened since.
Their unbridled lust
has sliced me for pies
with lattice weave tops,
only to survive
blistering oven temps
(not my intended fate).
I’ve been boiled down to
ugly brown glop
called apple butter,
and this mushy concoction
apple sauce they eat with pig.
Why has my identity been
distorted, defamed, destroyed?
I want to ask this of the lovers
but they fled.

 

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Currently she’s in the pre-production stage of an off-Broadway play she wrote called The Crooked Heart.

Digby Beaumont is a self-taught artist whose work has appeared in a number of online journals. He is also a writer.