Unripe Apples Fall Poem by Steven Federle

Unripe apples fall
and lie wasting on the ground,
spots spreading into brown,
circles, decaying, waiting
for sun and time to gently take
seminal seeds into the warm earth.

Small birds fall
down low
from their high, swaying tree,
to where patient
fallen apples
melt and glow.

Two looming hawks rise
waiting for the time to be right,
to turn their dark wings
and with swift silent stroke
give feathered death
to these surprised souls,
casting them like seeds
into the dark soil.