In the Happo-En Garden, Toyko
by Linda Pasdan
The way a birthmark
on a woman’s face defines
rather than mars
her beauty,
so the skyscrapers—
those flowers of technology—
reveal the perfection
of the garden they surround.
Perhaps Eden is buried
here in Japan,
where an incandescent
koi slithers snakelike
to the edge of the pond;
where a black-haired
Eve-san in the petalled
folds of a kimono
once showed her silken body
to the sun, then picked a persimmon
and with a small bow
bit into it.
PHOTO: Happo-En Garden, Tokyo, Japan (commons.wikimedia.org)
POETRY and PLACES 
