Butterfly Catcher

    In the Sixties

    Nabokov switched

    from ink to eraser-

    topped pencil

    on index cards  a box

    of cards for Ada  a box

    of cards for dreams

    whose "curious features"

    include "erotic tenderness

    and heart-rending enchantment"

    in one draft

    he traded "stillness and heat"

    for "silence， a burning"

    so picture：

    Vladimir seated

    at the trunk of a tree

    a spring day

    at Wellesley  where

    he marvels at his students

    and their cable-knit socks

    the way each elastic

    grips without binding

    just below

    the knee      so exquisite

    an application of pressure

    that when said sock

    is slowly

    peeled off

    the skin shows

    no trace at all