Saturday, February 23, 2008

Drift

Seven years old, in my jigsaw world map
I saw the west coast of Africa
fit neatly beside Brazil
despite the expanse of ocean
that correctly came between
in broken blue.

Years later in a college lecture room
I discovered continental drift,
plate tectonics, theories of biogeography
and instantly understood.

Now, sifting through photographs
I see your distant face:
Africa to my Brazil.




previously published in Curlew magazine

unneeded(?) puzzle piece for Weekend Wordsmith

11 comments:

paisley said...

oh i absolutely love this.. it is so perfect,, and such a good bargaining tool when dealing with biblical literalists.... bravo!!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm not surprised it was published!

Wonderfully awesome.

S.L. Corsua said...

Here, subtlety lends such a great impact. (I gasped at the end.) An impressive compact poem, from the title to the first line to the last: a complete piece, a whole. ;)

daisies said...

wow ... love this a whole lot!

Inside our hands, outside our hearts said...

This is deep and so beautiful. I loved the last line, "Africa to my Brazil."

Just perfect.


T

DayDreamer said...

This is wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Vision poem, using scale to express the depth of your feeling, a kind of microcosm macrocosm poem, beautifully executed so that the last line sings,

WH said...

A beautiful poem on a blog full of wonderful words -:) This says an awful lot in few words, with shape as the defining element.

Rob Windstrel Watson said...

Neat - two continents merging - a powerful thought, beautifully executed :-)

Odessa said...

love how the title says everything. and "africa to my brazil" - perfect!

Scot said...

yes--the cycle...excellent close.:)