Cartography

What is beyond our ken
our flight plan
.....................................we approach via kenning
.....................................and boarding passes
(sun-bearer
frequent-flier
salmon-eater
aisle seat, pretzel-sated)
.....................................Re: direct, say indirect: miles approximate
.....................................and maps thanks to flatness distort all ways.

The trip will take longer than you think
(it will).
.....................................For Baltimore to Tallahassee on the cheap,
.....................................introduce Atlanta. Sleight of land.

The effect on climate of grid lines. Near the equator winter evaporates
from poems. December's residual locale,
a relic
buried
in hot dirt.
.....................................Bacchanalia of abundant summer.
.....................................Matrix of three hundred warm days.

Lazy logic of if-then, crosswise: "close enough" permits miscalculation,
attendant skewed graphs.
Lines of demarcation and lassitude
of terminal latitude.
.....................................Sweep of margin punctuates a gulf
.....................................shown here in green.

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words: Amber Coady