Apple Tree
Daniel David Perz

An apple tree stood lonely in a field
Mostly friendless it bore no fruit
Except for a few squirrels who called it home
Spring came, the apple tree blossomed
Apples followed
And so did the friends
Soon enough came the hungry animals wanting food
The apple tree, so lonely on its own in the field,
          gave them as much fruit as it could
With all the new animals arriving to feed on the apples
The apple tree’s old friends, the squirrels, grew wary of the new visitors,
and without a word left for a distant forest
The apple tree missed its old friends
So it invited more animals to feed on its fruit
and make it their home
Came the woodpeckers and more deer
A bear and some wild horses
The more new friends that came
The more apples the apple tree had to produce to satisfy and fulfill its friends
The apple tree grew tired of supporting all these supposed friends
So it stopped making so many apples
It lost friends
No longer did they have a reason to visit it
In time no more apples emerged from flowers
Nor did the squirrels return
Now when the apple tree produced apples
          they were bitter and sad.
Eventually the apple tree lost its will to live
And was grateful when a human cut it down for firewood