...Not Far From The Tree Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

An apple bored to just be hanging
had tried, through frequent heavy banging
to cut himself loose from the tree,
he wanted also to be free,
as some of his esteemed round friends
had fallen down near the old fence.

To no avail were here his tries
only the wind did hear his cries,
and on a day with heavy cloud
it started whistling rather loud
and swept through all the orchard trees
dislodged some hives of honey bees
and nudged the apple of his stem
thus he fell down and laughed at them.

'You stupid apples, are you plotting
your great escape or are you rotting
I see that you are resting now
on muddy ground, don't you know how
to look after your apple skin
you must preserve it well to grin
and as you know no apple sells
if he looks wrinkled, even smells.'

The apple who had fallen last
then tried to roll but was aghast
he could not move at all down here
it gave him one big dose of fear.

While trying to make up a plan
a rather big and heavy man
came up to them with muslim bag
he gave each apple its own tag
and soon they all were sealed inside
the farmer took them for a ride.

The farmer's kids came running out
(the wife was making sauerkraut) ,
they looked at all the apples now
the youngest one said 'Daddy, wow,
it did not take you long to get
these apples and I think I'd bet
that you did climb a big old tree.'

'Oh no, a big old tree, not me,
you kids must learn that not a one
can walk or shuffle, fly or run,
an apple always tends to be
right where he falls, close to the tree.'