CARTOGRAPHIC FAILURES

by marjorie stein

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storm-rinsed light holds slip of shore

curves where a map ends early                   [faking the map inside me]

                                                                           [the origin of “far”]

the angle of land is the problem

                                                                           [earth’s transient mantle]

grey-pleated sea chisels

self-inflicted margins

                                                                          [reckless digression from boundary]

                                                                          [in all its taking]

somewhere a problem of entropy

bearing a small boat

that cannot look back

                                                                         [arms not waving]

what molecule repeats as wave

what stays as anchor

 

sun decays in the west

caught on cloud-tossed sky

                                                                        [everything is held]

                                                                        [in a cracked bowl of sun]

                                                                        [fissured — you can almost]

 

hand upon the compass

triangulates star-scree

as perfect arcs

describing the wrong north

                                                                       [my darkly falling birds]