Up those stone steps you didn't see before,
an old woman tends a decrepit courtyard.
MALUS
The crabapple sends up shoots
Children crowding close to her breast
Safe beneath her outspread wings catching sun's warmth
The redoak has been generous with his leaves this year
And she is clothed handsomely in their colors
Thousands of paper scarves and kerchiefs
Feathers and teeth
Life accepts the gifts of the living and dead
True beauty
I have been sent to rake them
My claws scratching and scraping at her roots
Laying bare the ground on which her children sit
Revealing her to all eyes
So that she is naked
For the public's comfort
So that she fits in and looks clean
A pillar of the tower
Rising to the heavens