The Apple Tree

I hope you guys like this transformation of Robert Frost's 'Nothing Gold can Stay'

Flower

One by one, first pink then pearl, blossoms unfolding sprinkle branches reaching for the sky. Her beauty is unveiled, a bride on her wedding day. Emerald beetles, dragonflies and bees sing golden songs of spring. They fly-dance with joy among her leafy boughs. Flowers fade and drop, and fruit is formed, when at last little children emerge. Circling her gnarly trunk in a binding ring of trust, playing in petals, as though they were snow.

Fruit

The sun shines bright in a sky of blue; radiant and serene. Her loving care of leafy arms, drop wrinkled apples upon the earth beneath her arching boughs. Children scurry round to gnaw the coloured sweets. The wild wind whispers secrets to lull them as they gorge these treats. Tiny hands grab and snag as many apples as they can.

Morning comes, and the heat! The glimmering sun rises bringing warmth and light - but soon it hardens, burns and dries her sapblood stiff in treeveins. She shields the forest from the heat and glare of the sun’s scorching touch. With branches spread she shows her love. A leaf curls up as the heat glares on, and on.

Leaf

The days grow shorter, heralding the slow caramelisation of her once green expanse. Leaves are falling, one-by-one. One falls down on a wistful head as the man gazes up. Her lustrous green outstretched no more, and her wedding gown a memory, as the wind grows strong. He walks away. The apples plunge down one by one, she struggles, striving to hold on. Their roots are strained to keep them firm and steadfast, but will they stand? She wants to grab them in her arms but cannot reach. Leaves disappear and fall as the days go on, the wind blows hard and long.

Sticks

Winter’s storms year after year beat down, each fierce droplet piercing her leafless form. And no one comes. A seedling plops down into the rich soil below just as she goes to sleep. Her apples, sticks among sleet, they weather the seasons, no rhyme, no reason - just time - just time... She won’t last forever