VI

According to Pablo Neruda
A man is a tree.
But if a man is a tree
He wants to know
The man inside the man.
Or if a man is a tree
What is a man
Hanging from its branches?
It was evening all afternoon.
Sometimes Pablo Neruda
Says this to himself.
He wants to know
Which step to take.
He wants to know
What he’s trying to say
With questions. Likeness
Was understanding?
Then what was Pablo Neruda
And not Pablo Neruda?

__________

Carter Smith is a student in the English and American Literature program at Washington University in St. Louis. The title of his section, “Therefore You Are That Other One You Love,” comes from Stephen Berg’s translation of the fifteenth century Japanese poet Ikkyu: “you can’t be anyone but you / therefore you are that Other one you love.”