mapmakers

mapmakers
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Not the
crisp sterilised paper of
neatly-folded roadmaps; not the
blue-on-black crisscrossing of
highways and railroad tracks;
not the
redbrowngreen of squiggly contours representing sleepy hills
or stern geometrical squares of factory buildings
not these, but
musty parchments in ancient libraries, carefully rolled up to
protect their flaking corners and faded ink;
dust-lined pages of outdated atlases shoved
carelessly behind rows of well-thumbed novels
yellowed aged papers remembering
days of pristine newness and long-dead makers
covered with
intricate traceries of painstakingly drawn
whorls; loops; curlicues; curves depicting
what?

speculate: this looks like
a kite; a lady's high-heeled boot; a dog's head?
tiny arrows charting forgotten seaways and
mysterious 'x's marking maybe
pieces of eight/buried treasure?

carrying you back into
a world where the mystic of the orient still
exists; dragonfly japan reaching hesitant antennae out
to greater dragon china shores

conjuring up pictures of shinto shrines and red-tiled pagodas
hwanghe changjiang snaking through yellow plains fertile with
their floodwaters--and changcheng barring the way of barbarian invaders
with its immovable foundations built on forgotten graves and mengjiangnu's tears

borneo brooding silently over java sumatra; studded with palms
and lithe shapes furtive in dense forests--'heart of darkness'
most exciting of all; the words, written in a trembling hand --
"unexplored."
or "shoals, currents, dangers ahead!" what
lies there?
greedy
icebergs' jaws or
whirlpool currents or seamonsters or mermaids or eldorado or
miles of green ocean and sunshiny isles?

on top; siberian wastes and white arctic expanses
where
fur-hooded inuit and slick black seals walk the silver ice
while off newfoundland blue lobsters snap their pincers glaring
angrily out of fierce beady eyes

traverse the equator/tropics of capricorncancer;
reel off names with the exotic ring; magic of
madagascarkilimanjarotahiticappadociasarajevo
baghdadcarpathiamanilaegypt
flip a page;
there are
sanddunes sphinxes saharas savannas
giraffes stalking proudly amidst thorny acacias
silted rivers meandering slowly through forests of glowing flowers and technicolour birds
down to clamorous ports.

below/ australia new zealand huddle together where
old sailors thought was land's end.
seven seas; deepbluewhitegreenshallow
dappled with flickering sunrays or
roaring with wildstormwindgreycloud
dotted with stately triremes viking longboats
tallmasted junks galleons in full sail chugging steamships slimprowed canoes
precambrian canada reclines upon
america's rough shoulders ridged with
jagged peaks and snowy ranges--

Enough! lest the
call of oceans rivers deserts sweeps you away unheeding into
the mists of time and you are lost in the
questing mysteries
of maps.



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volantis, August 2002