Two people, a man and a woman, walk out of the forest before sunrise after what seems to have been a frightening night. The poem never says what they were running from, but the details point to it: his sweat dripping onto the soil, his heart still pounding with fear, her hand steadying his back. He clears the branches with his bare hands, and she holds him up when he can barely stand.
Then the mood turns. A tower appears in the distance, its rows of columns a reminder of how far they have come. Under a tree heavy with apples, she loses her fear and picks two, one for each of them. The fruit tastes better than any she has had before, which suggests how much relief sharpens the senses. They sit back to back against the trunk, eat, and settle down to rest as the sun rises. The poem ends quietly, with gratitude for the light and the new morning.