offspring's purview

offspring's purview

 

I used have a globe

(when I was a kid

all those states

all those countries

and rivers and mountains) 

I would turn in my sleep

 

the spinning ball

bouncing off my dreams

of exploration

of finding some unnamed

island to call my own

 

but the more the globe spun

the more I realized

geography was for the adults

who had already found

those islands in their travels

 

and then returned to their cocktail parties

barely mentioning the occasion

as if they had merely stubbed their toes

on some beach that did not look familiar

in the alcoholic light.

 

 

erin-cilberto

3/8/25