maps wrinkle forever
ridges, ripples, cuts and tears
rivers and legends move across landscapes
marked from the centre out
inked by solar progress
hills wane, tides
rise mountains
ravines, soft coastlines,
spill over provincial eyes
sheathe
violence, off the map
coal mine collapse
fallow logging road
roadside shrines, desiccated flowers
maps provoke the terror of perfection,
cold flesh realities like frozen points
like alloy tubes encircling primeval etchings of buried oil;
into desiccated creek beds, lines
dissolve in lines
rings of older roadways
maps never sleep
never slip in their production of cities and towns
infill space invasion
the dissection of meridians
and wilderness hangs like quotes between
people in the spoken place