Apples

"Where there is gravity there will always be apples."
                                                ~ Jessica Hincapie


In the biblical story of creation, the apple
glows in the center of the garden, shiny 
and tempting as if it is the first Whole Earth 
Catalog. Some other versions of that story 
posit the apple was really a pomegranate, 
or more likely a fig since artworks through 
the ages show Adam and Eve covering 
their genitals with fig leaves after their fall.
A tree stands in the garden of the School 
of Physics at the University of York, reputedly 
a descendant of the very tree from which 
an apple fell in the summer of 1666, leading 
to Newton's discovery of terrestrial gravitation.  
In late July all the way into fall, fruit bloom
and ripen in orchards. There's enough 
for apple-picking, and more than enough
that topple to the ground. Gravity works 
on the weight each apple carries in its belly:
gravity the force that causes the apple 
to drop from the tree, that also anchors 
the moon in place. Surrounded by scent
of apple blossom and sugar, plump 
cheeks tinged with a little red and yellow, 
don't you want to think of apples more 
than you want to think of gravity 
and all the ways it means to fall?