Cinnamon

Each man lives beneath a tree and during the winter covers the tree with waterproof white felt, which he removes for the summer.

              — Herodotus

flying over the region during winter I note the white-capped trees

in the country of the Argippaioi, & under each tree a man

(though I alter the text to say “a woman”), I imagine her, all

winter licking black fluid drained from the fruit of the pontikon tree

Herodotus is not to be believed but to be entertained by

the fabulous tale about winged serpents who build nests of cinnamon

stalks & cinnamon traders who chop animals into large pieces

onto the forest floor, whence the serpents carry the chunks to their nests

where the weight causes the nests to fall to the earth, where traders gather

cinnamon stalks & carry them off to far lands to exchange for gold

as for the Issedones, their women share power equally with 

their men — who believes that? & they feast on their fathers’ dead bodies

plus griffins & one-eyed men, yet what’s most incredible are the wars

wars & more wars, kings & sons of kings & malcontents & deceivers

beheadings, impalings, hangings & stranglings, sacrifices, exiles

but Herodotus does not tell all, he sometimes chooses to forget