What the Mapmaker Knows

What the Mapmaker Knows
Mary Jo Bang

O is the ocean and t the consequence
 of time at the edge
 of a landscape of dots plotted into the plane
 with a constant scale.

Any place can be located and later divided
 by cultural and social data and sketched¹
 on a napkin（餐纸，尿布） —disregarding distance
 and leaving only the little one knows.

Description is reductive: a shirt on the back,
 buttons on the front, a mind that is willing
 to enact² its own explosive end. What idiocy³（白痴）
 the world is made of:

fierce justifications⁴, landmines⁵ and such,
 a plaid shirt（个子花呢上衣） , a rifle upright.
 Day and night, an empire
 of uncommon⁶ horror: the murderer singing,

"Every moment all that matters is me."
 Tick-tick in the drifting dark.