Apple-picking

Artwork by Isabelle Lu, staff artist

And every day is flaming

Burning up red, sun, orange

Skimming our hair

Under a rusting bridge

With a crimson dotted gorge

When sunset passes,

Beautiful in the only light

It'll ever give us.

We smolder against a blue-edged sky

That blinks in the glare of the apple

Of my eyes of your eyes of

A forbidden tree

And a gold-tinged meadow

Sparking sunshowers

In each sky iris

Pray now from your place above me

Crowned in sienna leaves

That we will

Slow burn asunder like

We will never be doused

Never blacken into coals

Never disintegrate

Into dust

Just part, like

The reddest of apples

And the sweetest of lips.

Like our mottled skin

Will be kindled and

Lit again,

And again,

And,

again.

Every day

Is an apple seed planted

Sparking down my throat

Tilling goosebumps

Up each arm

Till I’m melting

In this blue.

Melting for you,

To water

This apple tree.

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Esti Goldstein is seventeen years old and lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio where she has long been inspired by the beauty of the suburbs where she is especially grateful for autumn. Much of her inspiration comes from her own life, the current culture (no, Snapchat is not included), and the stories that she has been told. You can often find her running, laughing with friends, writing (of course), and her mother’s favorite: doing nothing, which she would rather call daydreaming.

Isabelle Lu is a 16-year-old creative from Long Island, New York. She is a winner of the New York Times Student Editorial Contest and the Scribe Writing Contest in poetry. She likes collecting strange earrings, which when worn may hinder activities like playing the cello and putting on sweaters. In her daily life, she can be found doodling and enthusing about books to unsuspecting innocents. Her art career began with magical girls.