Leavings
Bernadine Lortis
Like a fallen woman
unashamed to show her face
though lined and wrinkled with age
who refuses to disrobe from her scarlet gown,
she floats with her sisters down the well-known street.
Then, keeping bond with those huddled close to the ground,
bared but blanketed beneath soft maple trees,
she gives herself freely to leaven earth´s bed for renewal.