Winter In the Garden

Each winter the Ladder Backed Woodpecker taps at the barked notches of apple trees. The leaves have fallen and frost plasters the limbs brittle enough to break by wind or weight. This is when the Ladder Backed attacks. Digs its beak deep into the trunk and pries out her secret. This is when the woodpecker sees itself exposed, the strange chagrin, a grownups mind, ashamed of knowledge. This is the same season our sad aged parents were thrown out of the garden. This is when the thought of good and evil broke bones, limbs fell off, birds ripped through to the core, and a jealous God made us stewards of the world.