Searching for the Apple Orchard

My tired feet trample
onto this rough ground
clad with dripping mud
and brown, crumpling leaves

I am lost
Every towering, dense
evergreen
turns into a creeping monster
edging closer and closer
getting thicker and thicker
darker and darker

unusual silence
sweeps over the forest
no birds, no bushes rustling,
no bugs buzzing

attempts to focus on
the crisp, luscious
reward for such an
adventure
collapse
as my mind hovers
on the fear of
being deserted
in this place forever

the sun begins to set
the sky turns the
shade of a pale squash
I wish I had a jacket
the air is like cool sweat

the conifers turn to
white, friendly looking
birches
a trail makes its debut

the absence of all sound is filled
beautiful blue hummingbirds
are everywhere
a slinky red fox rushes through
a patch of brilliant pink and orange
tigerlillies
wonderful, but yet still no sign
of an opening pasture...

a large turn around jagged boulders
a gap of light
I finally find what I've been searching for

I flop down in the middle
of a small, placid orchard
relief paints itself
as a firm apple with flaky skin
it tastes even more perfect than it looks