David Tribe
Terra Incognita
It must be there, or else the globe
would topple over; there must be symmetry
In sea and earth. The southern breeze
must have a womb to bear it, the albatros
a royal nest. Look far a lobe
that listens to their whimper in imagery
of serpents, populate the seas
with mermaids and fill in the land with dross.
Yes it is there, and men whose lives
are ordered far them face suspiciously
an imagery as strange and vast
as anything they dreamt of. So they fill
their plots with distant plants and wives
and think of home a world away and see
their future grow to meet their past,
and try to bend the light waves to their will.
Meanwhile the man who think they know
it squat unknown and mean inside its heart
or chant to it without echo
and contemplate no future and no past.
The sun sets and the shadows grow
to heaven, where stars stand gorgeously apart.
Nothing below stirs but a gecko,
the southern breeze and nameless things that last.
Page(s) 77
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