Final stage dressing for our Nutcracker tree.
It’s been assembled, lighted, be-ribboned, and be-candy-caned.
The present boxes, filled with many-year-old air,
are set carefully — we try for artfully — around the base.
If you magnify you can just see
the head of the Nutcracker
peeking up from behind the gingerbread house,
waiting for his reveal and Clara’s delight.
It’s easier to spot him from the side.
Ultimately, the curtain rises
and the tree becomes the backdrop for the dances.
The outrageously inebriated maid
has just begun her wobbly dance.
Scandalized, we are.
Three weeks ago, on the stage of the Diana Wortham Theatre.