The Tree of Worlds

In the beginning all the worlds grew on trees like 
apples
and the gods picked them as they pleased. 
One day a god, her fingers as white as the Milky Way,
reached for the Earth,
 but a shining god reached out as well,
 and when their hands touched, 
the Earth slipped through their fingers.

My world has fallen through the sky,  said the first god.
 I'll never find it again. 

It was a puny world,  said the shining god.
 
Then why did you reach for it?

I didn't,  said the shining god, 
I was reaching for this  instead.

And he plucked a plump shiny world 
growing next to where the Earth had been 
and handed it to her.  
She bit into it and forgot the Earth.

And that is how the Earth came to rest near the sun 
and why, like uneaten fruit, we ripen and rot.

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