wordsout by godfrey rust
Welcome To The Real World  < 25 of 59 >

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Maps

To know the world without maps
with each place relative to every other

is God’s privilege. Maps are a frame of mind.
To stretch earth’s skin

on the rack of an appropriate projection,
pinned down by latitude and longitude

is false security. Courage goes
beyond the consolation of the atlas—

it was absence of maps
tormented those wise men, searching between

fear’s cancer and a capricorn desire,
and drawn towards Bethlehem,

the real world’s compass locked upon
its passionate, magnetic north.

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© Godfrey Rust 1998, godfrey@wordsout.co.uk. See here for permissions.

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