This poem is taken from PN Review 215, Volume 40 Number 3, January - February 2014.

Tree of Knowledge

Paul Cawte
I sat beneath the bodhi tree
and laying my upturned palms with kissing thumb and finger on knees spread wide
I forgot to rise

Blossom by flower
its long tongue sipping from the cups laid out, the monarch came
and lighted on my nose

Cross-eyed staring
lost in the silk of its wings whose iridescence is not painted but is the play of light
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