Apples, Please

i used to ask my mother for apples
just so i could watch her use the"machine"
that cut them into perfect pieces.

and then the apple
would get brown over the time it took
me not to eat it.

today i carved all of the skin off
of an apple and i cried at the empty shell
of it that was left behind, left standing
perfectly on the table as though i had never
removed it in the first place.