Romancing Applesauce

Author: Stephen W. Cote

I married an apple from a tree

Speaking insightful words of humanity

Lo, a serpent encircled my mind

Venom in my heart, foreshadow on my mind

Expediently, I clothed my nakedness

In a cloak warmed by temptation's kiss

Away I fled from the paradise embrace

The serpent and my spine still interlaced

Miles down the trail of the damned

I happened upon a kind, gentle man

Who spoke unto me words soft and sweet

I knelt before him, the apple at his feet

"Stranger," quote I to his grace

Though he broke my quote with a gnarled face

"Death, decay, corruption," he versed

And I left him speaking things worse

The serpent tightened around my spine

And with the apple outstretched I raced for time

Down a path quite black and dreary

Until a woman I met, smiling cheerfully

Courtly, I bowed with majesty

And placed the apple at her feet so dainty

A smile crept across her face

Optimistic vengeance gave her words a bitter taste

"Happy love-joys and nosegays

And thank the Lord for each sunny day."

And yes the sun did shine, and

Her words seemed lost in this paradise land

By the grace of God she saw the apple

And how it gleamed and appeared so ample

Alas she only let it go to waste

As she thought of how delicious smashed apple might taste

And of all those people, one happy and glad

The other lonely and mad

I thought of them as I returned to the garden in loss

With a new idea of humanity, and a pulpy applesauce