The Golden Apple

Standing at the bottom of a cliff
Staring up at a great tree on top
A golden apple sways high on its branches
Your only hope from starvation

You begin your climb
Find your first foothold
Jagged rocks roughen your bare hands, bare feet
Five feet up, you think this will be easy

A stretch and a grab on a rocky handhold
You pull your weight and cracks break the mold
You reach out in vain. Gravity pulls you down the rocks
Scrapes scar your hands. To the bottom, you drop

You dust yourself off.
You know where you went wrong
You start again.
Believing you’re strong

Farther than before
On the the side of the cliff
You pause for a moment
To tighten your grip

But that gravity, a wicked imp
Smashes your footholds
You feel the rocks go limp

A pit in your stomach
Then you feel yourself slip
Your fingers bleed against the rocks
as you fight for a grip

Tumbling down to where you were before
Your shoulder hits hard right there on the floor
You take a pause as pain draws near
And suddenly your eyes fill with tears

Still at the top, that golden apple sways
Your hunger is enough to take your breath away
Wiping up your scrapes and stretching out your bruises
You get back on to climbing and make no excuses

Higher up the cliff, you see an end in sight
A few more feet and you’ll be on the clifftop
Then on to the tree and it’s great height
Your hope’s so high, your heart might pop

Hands find the edge
Just pull yourself up
But gravity is there
And it’s not going to stop

With a swing like a hammer
It makes the ground crack
Your panic screams out
As it just laughs

The rocks begin to fall
And you go with them
A freefall of horror
Sinks into your system

When you hit the ground
The world goes black
It isn’t ’til hours later
That you finally come back

Beaten and broken
Scratched and scarred
Every inch of skin holds pain
Like a log blackened and charred

You stay on the ground
But your eyes catch a light
That golden apple swaying at its height

Your stomach rumbles
There’s an ache in your heart
But how can you get up
When you’ve fallen so far?

You rise to a sit
and the cliff looks taller
Perhaps you can’t do this
That’s all you can wonder

You don’t have to turn
You know there are eyes on the trees
The forest behind is watching you
Waiting for you to succeed

You shouldn’t show them
That you’re beaten and broken
You shouldn’t show them
You’re what they misplaced their hope in

But you want to admit
That you want to give up
Lay down in the dirt
Not pick yourself up

The golden apple
Sways high on the tree
A tantalizing sight
That makes you hungry

But gravity guards the cliff
Ready to strike you down
And remind you again
That reality is on the ground

A dream you hold so dear
Who knew it was a hard fought battle?
Overcome by all your fears
How can you reach that golden apple?