woman reading siddhartha

Madam Wu
Whose feet her mother had tried to bind
But whose bandages were cut open before the bones were broken
Always retained
Due to that early binding
A narrowness of feet
Unseen in even the most deliactely bound ones
(pavillion of women by pearl s buck)

And she
With her early attraction to renunciation
Always retaining
Even in her later, sensual years
A tranquility of spirit
That went by unnoticed
     In many wiser, more diligent women
     Who had it also
Made many believe
In her angelhood