This is a song about class divide and how we view the rich and poor of our society. I chose the metaphor of the cherry and the pit because, while they are part of the same system, they are viewed and valued very differently. The cherry (wealth) is the sweet dangling fruit at the center of our admiration and the pit (poverty) is the ugly thing that we want to quickly discard and forget about. In the song, the cherry’s verse remains the same because our view of poverty remains the same: that it is escapable if one would simply choose to apply themself more. Poverty is a pit though, and often times no amount of hard work is sufficient to climb out of it, which is where the cherry pit finds itself by the end of the song. You can find a link to me singing the song here to help give you a sense of its rhythm.
I am the cherry pit,
I make the tree grow sound
and when it’s done with me
it castes me to the ground.
How I
wish that I could be
just like
the fruit surrounding me;
a life I’ll never see.
I am the cherry fruit,
I live a life so warm and sweet
atop the tree until
I’m chosen as a treat.
How come
the pits don’t do the same?
Only
themselves can they blame.
Different only in name
are the cherry and the pit.
I am a fruitless pit,
in the soil I find my chore.
Set to toil to
what end I care no more.
From me
the tree it grows anew.
My seed
trapped beneath the fruit I grew,
a cycle sure and true.
I am the cherry fruit,
I live a life so warm and sweet
atop the tree until
I’m chosen as a treat.
How come
the pits don’t so the same?
Only
themselves can they blame.
Different only in name
are the cherry and the pit.
My life is but a pit
and to its poison I am bound.
These roots of mine
growing ever deeper down.
I long
to shake this dirt from me,
to live
a life of warmth and sweetness
I’m tired…I’m tired…
I’m tired of the pit.
Worn Out Shoes 