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Making Siapo: 1. peeling the barkCherie Barford 
small plantations of mulberry trees
are tended like growing children
pruned and nudged into alignment
they sprout straight toward heaven
without branches or strange notions
to mar the finished product
when village babies toddle into walking
saplings from the same birth-moon
are cut or bitten around the butt
the bark stripped from them
like clothing
peeled from wet bodies
determined pulling
some grunting and wrestling
finally accomplishing the deed
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