Fruits of labour
by Annabelle Zhou, Korowa Anglican Girls School
Years 11 – 12 Written Poetry Finalist
Our mothers seeds, we were scattered across
A barren field with only us two in sight
As the days past by we grew and we bloomed
The same green leaves and the same tall height
Praised, loved! An immortal fruit
The beginning of life; the cure for the ill
Knowledge, temptation, pure of the heart
Both cherished and loved, up until
A bite of your flesh it is sugary sweet
A beggar would pay gold for another taste
A nibble of my flesh i am just as sweet
But i am wormed inside; dirty and laced
And from the outside, we are ripe red apples.
Waiting to be picked, waiting to be chosen
With gentle hands you were plucked and held
With sharp claws i was snatched and taken
Yet it doesn’t make sense, we are from the same root
Why am I not met with joy and kindness?
While you thrived i survived my fruits will taste sweeter
The efforts of my labour, unseen in blindness
The blessed apple tree, just naturally better
Yet your hunger never gnawed, never clawed like mine
You grew up tended and turned out fine
I grew up starved and learned to be fine
Your children will love you, the people will too
My children have rusted, right to the core
My branches will droop and my bark will be carved
To feel the shame, the weight of the fruit i have bore
And your image will forever rest in a golden frame
With sonnets of your sweetness, couplets of your colour
The exact same traits that i had too, once upon a time
The exact same traits that we both shared inherited from our mother
But know this as i sink below and rot beneath the sun
The roots that made you beautiful are the same that me red
The story of the apple tree is one largely misunderstood
For even bitter fruit can bloom where sweetness never could.