Cartographic Confidence

Wed, 01/14/2015 - 23:59 -- jahayes

Location

Antananarivo is the capital of Madagascar

open a map and you open me

a view I can’t help but dream

doesn’t even cover the amazing feeling

that thrills through my fingers as

I hold the world in front of me.

Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of Brunei

Maps move me, move for me

because beyond their two

dimensional lines, crosses, neat quadrants,

their topography forms like beautiful bodies

that I long to explore, their secrets lay

in knowing them, their names, do you know

that the capital of Belarus is Minsk?

Long car rides when I was little and

I didn’t know where we were going but I knew

that the capital of Australia is Canberra

not Sydney or Melbourne, like other people may think,

but I am not other people, I am my own

cartographer, compass clasped in one hand

me the map or keep it, I can still tell

you that the capital of Denmark is Copenhagen,

let’s play the alphabet game with capitals and countries:

            Antananarivo, Madagascar

            Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

            Canberra, Australia

            Dili, East Timor

now you’re speaking my language

of land and earth and sea

the world in it’s entirety, and you’ll understand how

much there’s left to know

of me; my journey has just begun

            flawlessly

Zagreb is the capital of Croatia

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