An Ode Grandmother June Apple

In Honor of Tree Week Clark County

Apple Tree,
every year she dances through
the cycles of a youth­ful spring
to matur­ing fruit, but
she shows her age at her cen­ter -
the years twist­ing her and hol­low­ing her out.
She is the Fates in one.

Heavily laden with near ripe fruit,
gifts for the world at just the right time.
But there is so much pres­sure to pro­vide
that even the life giv­ing rain is
too much weight and
a branch snaps.

A whole appendage gone,
with it, wast­ed unripe fruit.
But ahhh, so much lighter!
The bur­den is eas­i­er to bear
and a twig slow­ly grows
into a branch.

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Grandmother June Apple lives in the gar­dens of Liberty Hall Historic Site in Frankfort, Kentucky. She is a sight to behold, espe­cial­ly for a fruit-bear­ing tree. She is tall and has the loveli­est arch­ing branch­es. Lore says she was plant­ed by the first sen­a­tor of Kentucky and wit­nessed the first Sunday school for girls in the state. 

But I will always remem­ber her for feed­ing the chub­by ground­hog and her kits who lived in the giant mulch pile. She sur­vived the lat­est flood of the Kentucky River, but curi­ous­ly bloomed again in July. This may be a sign of a decline, so there are plans to take graft cut­tings to pre­serve her line. Please vis­it and admire her!

Celebrate trees with Tree Week Clark County, October 10^th — 19^th, 2025. Tree-themed activ­i­ties all week.