This poem is taken from PN Review 178, Volume 34 Number 2, November - December 2007.
Two PoemsMappa Mundi
Let this then be your diary and yearbook: make
a frame of oak on which to fix
a sheet of finest vellum, stretched, like skin; draw
freehand, a not quite perfect circle; use black
ink, some red, for the heart, let's say, for the Red
Sea; blue for rivers, veins; brown-egg shapes
for mountain ranges, and for faith; focus it all
towards the centre, Christ, his bones stretched wide
in crucifixion, colour him too insistent red
to confute the non-believers. Puce, for wars, but let it not
predominate. Have angels of the agony above
and devils snarling, scarlet, in the guts. Remember
that something within the frame of bones grows wiser
as the bones grow heavier, the same that shifts
...
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