This poem is taken from PN Review 239, Volume 44 Number 3, January - February 2018.
Two Poems
The Smoke-tree
Something zigzag in its branchwork
and the crown – flat, broad –
suggest China,
an overhang
above steep water
The leaves are tender, shaped
like small oval fans –
the sap, when
it oozes, has
an odd medicinal smell
In summer the panicles, sketchy,
faintly purple, papery
as a wasps’ nest,
fall and
bowl into corners
Autumn is the most exotic –
it flames through scarlet, crimson
...
Something zigzag in its branchwork
and the crown – flat, broad –
suggest China,
an overhang
above steep water
The leaves are tender, shaped
like small oval fans –
the sap, when
it oozes, has
an odd medicinal smell
In summer the panicles, sketchy,
faintly purple, papery
as a wasps’ nest,
fall and
bowl into corners
Autumn is the most exotic –
it flames through scarlet, crimson
...
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