CAN A WORD BE MAPPED

 

testing the acoustics in my last cathedral

I folded up the petal of a song

into my best pocket

 

like a map only clouds configure

not to scale

I wonder and

 

I wonder why

the sun is leaking light and

I'm afraid

 

already the wounded images are in hiding

and “nowhere” is written

large across the sky

 

though not inscriptive gold.

 

can a word be mapped

or will it fly like a color wheel

falling off a sunset sky

 

or like a ghost ship sailing on no water

 

it's the marbled music I

can't find anymore

no matter how I try

since moving from an old neighborhood

though I

Cast my Mercator net

 

so wide so wide

from the mark that distance cannot measure.

can a word be mapped

or must we live

 

blind and deaf to music in the end

wondering where the poets went-

ceding their diamond letters,

one by one

mary angela douglas 29 july 2010