If I slept like an egg
(unbroken), my eyes opening
crack the shell. This morning,
a cloud formation
takes the shape of Great Britain; elsewhere,
a garage floods, recedes,
and America stains concrete.
This is a compulsion
called cartocacoethes
where one sees maps
everywhere. I found the website,
and now left-over breakfast toast
is Cuba, where I want to go. I have a tendency
to make every happenstance
important. The light’s not green?
Take a right at the corner and notice
how those willow branches
are wet hair cascading
down–this means
we should go swimming. Think
how many people
there are in this world. I am so lucky.
This whole planet:
you could have been anywhere.
(unbroken), my eyes opening
crack the shell. This morning,
a cloud formation
takes the shape of Great Britain; elsewhere,
a garage floods, recedes,
and America stains concrete.
This is a compulsion
called cartocacoethes
where one sees maps
everywhere. I found the website,
and now left-over breakfast toast
is Cuba, where I want to go. I have a tendency
to make every happenstance
important. The light’s not green?
Take a right at the corner and notice
how those willow branches
are wet hair cascading
down–this means
we should go swimming. Think
how many people
there are in this world. I am so lucky.
This whole planet:
you could have been anywhere.
Kate Angus is the author of So Late to the Party (Negative Capability Press, 2016), the Creative Writing Advisor for the Mayapple Center for Arts and Humanities at Sarah Lawrence College and a founding editor of Augury Books. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in The Atlantic online, The Washington Post, The Awl, Verse Daily, Best New Poets 2010, Best New Poets 2014, Gulf Coast, Subtropics, The Academy of American Poets’ “Poem a Day” and Tin House’s “Open Bar.” More information about Kate can be found at www.kateangus.org.
featured image via cesarastudillo on Flickr.
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