[poem] The Cartography of Maps

a technical specification

Trawl the public catalogues
(uncertain boat on wave-tossed seas),
then search and sort through records
of where things ought to be.
Note your place and mark it well:
with buoys or coloured flags or pins,
or inscribe inside a ledger
complete with onward referents.
Craft me, please, a map of maps,
so I can find my way.

Maps tell us where it's safe to tread
& wo gefährlich ist--
nur für Geübte-- unmarked paths--
and where the waters shed.
They whisper of a homeward road,
of bedrock, forests, dreams.
They welcome you. They warn you off.
They offer secrets long years kept.

So weave for me a map of maps
because I yearn to ask--
where now, from here?
-- and, you see, this places answers in my grasp.