The+Apple+Orchard

The Apple Orchard The rain was sprinkled like crystal tears along the rosebuds. The apples hung with the cobwebs that had failed to be taken down. It was lonely and forgotten, and the wind sighed as it blew past my hair. The field was almost deserted now, but I was going to make it better. I found it was somewhere where I could escape from reality, and follow my inner voice that called to the ravens. And I could sing with the songbirds that floated with the wind. It was somewhere I didn't have to hide; somewhere I could be me. But eventually time became an illusion, and the apple orchard was abandoned, left buried under a thick snowy blanket. Until one day, I ran underneath the great oaks, and under the stone bridge, and through the whispering forest to find my lost dreamland. But when I arrived the land was barren, empty, and neglected once more. The trees had all rotted away; the ravens had found someone else to call to. Silence was sung, a low ballad of the earth's heartbeat, and only memories that clung to each shard of life remained. And the apples that grew from the trees were falling like shooting stars across my forgotten dream.  Haley Littmann