Zhuangzi Dreams of a Butterfly

from The Last Tribe on Earth by Anthony Tao, Liane Halton

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lyrics

Zhuangzi Dreams of a Butterfly

Zhuangzi the philosopher believed
in the value of non-belief.

He was untroubled by the world,
ever-easy under heaven, even

when it was in revolt,
logic and path in disarray,

full of understanding for process
and the helpless ambitions of men.

One day Zhuangzi woke from a dream
in which he was a butterfly

and felt a hunger in one of his
hundred bones, a gnawing

… it was hard to pinpoint,
thing or spirit, breath or air.

Is Zhuangzi dreaming of the butterfly
or the butterfly dreaming of food?

And this world we exist in,
the philosopher thought, how will water

turn into war, death
transform to fortune?

Was blood the hunger
dreamt by spear?

the schism of body
a dream of earthquake?

A warm wind rustled the leaves;
Zhuangzi understood perfectly

his task that day, however
impossible, was to describe it.

credits

from The Last Tribe on Earth, released March 20, 2019

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about

Anthony Tao, Liane Halton Beijing, China

LIANE HALTON graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa in classical guitar performance and composition. ANTHONY TAO is an editor and writer whose poetry has appeared in publications such as Prairie Schooner, Borderlands, The Cortland Review, Kartika Review, Frontier, Asian Cha, etc. ... more