FEATHERS

In one of Ovid's myths, the gods Jupiter and Mercury travel through the land of Phrygia, disguised as beggars and testing human compassion by asking strangers for food and shelter. Doors are repeatedly slammed in their faces. FinaUy, at the poorest of homes, they are invited inside. An old couple, Baucis and Philemon, feed the gods what little food they have, and Jupiter and Mercury are pleased. To punish the rest of Phrygia, they flood the land, but they save Baucis and Philemon, and grant them one wish. The husband and wife ask that neither of them wiU have to live alone, that they may die together. Baucis and Philemon live for many more years, but one day their bodies begin to change: their arms and legs grow long and smooth, like young tree limbs, and they reach to touch each other with the twigs that have become their fingers.The wrinkles ofBaucis's skin deepen like grooves, and her muscles and bones turn into fibrous, sinewy strands of sapwood and heartwood. Philemon grows taU, the strips of bark hanging from his head like braids, branches and twigs webbing from his body. Heart-shaped and feather-lobed leaves sprout from their skin, unfurling from their eyes and ears and hands. Roots grow together, winding into the earth, and the massive trunks lean into each other and merge. Their strong, wood-stuffed, bark-lined bodies carry the weight of a crown of green foliage. They are transformed: two different trees, an oak and a linden that grow from a single trunk, their bodies forever intertwined.