Today I saw an abandoned orchard from the highway.
Each tree’s branches reached out
into one another, announcing their neglect.
The tall, overgrown grass around their trunks
made them virtually unreachable.
Yet, even as I raced by,
the gnarled fruit glistened.
There, despite the disregard,
the apples had grown.
As I passed on through the city
I saw the children
not playing in the streets
but surviving there;
bitter, angry, hardened,
learning to “get over”.
Surely, as each unharvested apple
falls to the barren earth,
never to issue nurtured fruit,
that will be capable
of bearing nurtured fruit,
we are all diminished.