paul bowles is best known for his fiction and to a slightly lesser degree for his music. early in his creative career, however, he also wrote poetry. Gertrude Stein told him he was “not a real poet,” and he agreed. be that as it may i was perusing the university of deleware’s special collections feature on bowles (which you may wish to check out yourself) when i came upon a poem i liked. it was written in 1940 when he was in mexico and later appeared in the 1968 black sparrow press collection scenes. click and enjoy.