October Apples

Some of the windfalls have been collected and piled on a plastic garden chair. There are no signs of wild-life bites or nibbles, and only one green apple among them. They blush with October colours and scent.

Among them, one is more than half russet, almost bronze, a bruised rogue among the beauties. It must have suffered a harder bump in its hurry to escape the worm and now exudes a sweet scent, its skin on the verge of rotten, its flesh a mush.

apple skin on skin
anthem to the wind-fallen
rotten to the core

Kim M. Russell, 1st October 2018

October Apples

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday: Murmuration

This Monday we have qbit, also known as Randall, as our guest pubtender, with a prompt taken from a collection of writing exercises from ‘Poets who Teach’. He would like us to write two or three tight paragraphs in which we describe one particular member or element of a set. The challenge is to perceive the qualities of the group and distinguish what makes an individual member both a part of it and apart from it.

This exercise is intended to alert us to make distinctions and create particular images, to focus on concrete particulars and how they can express our vision to the reader. Randall would like us to finish with a haiku or micro-poem and says that the use of a kigo/season word is up to us.

30 thoughts on “October Apples”

  3. I love quince jelly and will be making mine next week. I bet I can spot the most bruised apple in the bunch. This was a most excellent write I like the gathering of windfalls. I usually pick among them to get the least bruised and leave the ones at animal height in the tree for the deer. then I climb on a ladder to get the rest. Autumn is such a wonderful season. You portray the one apple among the many beautifully and your haiku is lovely. Thanks for keeping it classic.

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  7. Here in WA state, apples are a big deal; love your windfall poetics. My grandfather told me about his orchard on the family farm, and that there are dozens of kinds of apples that never became domestic./ As a project, he grafted several kinds of apples on one tree; that must have been magical.

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  8. Wonderfully unexpected last line in that Haiku, but picking up the bruised fruit in the narrative. So much varied and beautiful among them all. And “a bruised rogue” that was in a hurry to escape the worm is great.

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  12. kaykuala

    It must have suffered a harder bump
    in its hurry to escape the worm and
    now exudes a sweet scent,

    One can’t imagine being admired physically arising from an unfortunate incident.

    Hank

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  16. I can smell that apple scent! I particularly liked these lines:
    “They blush with October colours and scent.
    Among them, one is more than half russet, almost bronze, a bruised rogue among the beauties.”

    I hasn’t seemed very fall like here. But soon, I’ll be making applesauce. 🙂

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