FATRAS (POEM)

CHARLES BYRNE

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MAPS

​Mappa mundi, ‘napkin of the world’, seems apt
in picturing the planet spread on the adventurer’s lap.

Mappa mundi, ‘napkin of the world’, seems apt
not only in musing how the banana ended up in Moana,
the chili pepper in Chennai and Jaipur,
the tomato in pasta al pomodoro,
or the goat circumchewing a tortoise on Galápagos,
but also in unfolding how a Spanish church
found itself on an island in the Caribbean
and stealth B-2 bombers perched
on a minuscule atoll in the Indian Ocean.
The pliancy of the physical sublime is the map,
the planet a napkin spread on the adventurer’s lap.

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Charles Byrne is a writer and teacher in San Francisco with poems published or forthcoming in Meridian, New American Writing, and Notre Dame Review. He has read submissions for RHINO poetry journal and Autumn House Press.