red sumac
SCENE C
Now the sepia image onscreen is of a young woman, ASCHA; she sits small and alone in an enormous field that slopes downward toward the viewer; she holds her knees in her hands. A fortress of evergreens stands tall behind her. The sky is clear and bright, a late winter sky.
—MUSIC BEGINS—an English horn
ASCHA
O break me, Lord,
into a thousand glittering pieces
and scatter the seeds of me:
send rain to wake my unborn roots
and I shall bring Thee lilies
All day long
I wandered the glades Thy fluid voice
spread wide with green
and knelt before an altar-work
of rivered quartz in stone
Did not Your Ygdrasil
all but call me from my bed last night,
and when I rose
and swung the shutters wide,
were not all her leaves a-singing?
O Solitude,
you are no curse upon my maiden-days
for in my deep affliction
you light each path I take
through Thine own Gethsemanes
Before the mirrors
of earthly beauty only the vain
and covetous kneel:
do lizards judge each other
by a turn of jaw or lip?
CHORUS LEADER
Like rivers that flow through kingdoms
then on to stranger coasts,
wouldn't one who's loved
every inch of their dooryard's earth
have also seen as much?
ASCHA
Sacred is the loam
while cruelty haunts expectant skies:
is it the morning glory
alone that opens
on the best of all possible worlds?
—MUSIC ENDS—
The screen goes black again till Orion spreads over it entirely while a hammer dulcimer’s notes begin to ring with the speed of a dirge.