'Repurposing the Swamp' by Zoé Mahfouz

The double helix stairs were an optical illusion so you wouldn’t know who was getting up and who was getting down. I got up to see the cubic-shaped trees from a distance. I got down to look for the birds in the cubic-shaped trees. A black-helmeted, raspberry-colored surgeon was making sure the cubic-shaped trees remained cubic rooted. The bird’s refuge was crowned defunct. Birds chose to cross the moat to circle erratically like double helix stairs around the tuffeau limestone from 1519, exfoliating in yellowish cream in the main courtyard. A macchiato-infused bird abdicated, in spasm, on the last stair.