hic sunt dracones
it says on the Hunt-Lennox globe,
its copper halves wired together.
The words mark
the eastern coat of Asia.
Here are dragons.
Half a century later,
we wonder still
did the maker mean
Komodo dragons?
Sea monsters?
The Dagroian people
whom Marco Polo reported
would eat the dead
and lick their bones?
Or was it simply a nod
to how frightening
it feels at the edge
of the known?
Tonight my son calls me
with an unbearable ache,
his map of the world
torn.
Though I am far away,
or perhaps because of that,
we are close.
Our voices say the words
we least want to say.
Our hearts are porous
and soft.
I want to tell him
that the dragons are not
at the edge of the map.
They are inside us.
And sometimes
they are more evil
than the most evil
we could imagine.
And sometimes,
though we’d rather
hate them, they are beautiful.
Instead I tell him
these are difficult times.
The globe, the third oldest
terrestrial globe in the world,
about the size of a grapefruit,
was bought by an architect
named Hunt. He told his friend
he had bought the object
in Paris for a song.
He let his children toy with it.
The friend begged
Hunt to keep the globe safe.
None of us are safe.
I fear I have let my dragons
escape, that they have flown
into my son.
Let him toy with them then,
the old ways of thinking
about the world—
let the unknown
become a place for play.
Here are dragons,
I think, as I redraw
the map, and write
the words on my face.
They sprout wings
and pick me up
with their terrible claws
and fly me to the cliffs
of my life
and drop me
over the edge.
This seems, but I’m not really sure, to reflect the darkness in our world that we are all wrestling with. I find it disturbs me; I wish for resolution–for light. It is certainly provocative. If that was your intent, you succeeded.
on a detail…None of us IS safe.
Here’s what I found, re: proper the singular or pluralness of “None”: “None” can be a singular pronoun if it’s referring to “not one” or “no part,” but it also can be plural when referring to “not any.” None of the apple was eaten. Apple is a singular item, so you’d use the singular verb “was.” None of the ballplayers were on the team bus after the game.Jun 14, 2011
I liked this poem. The lines, “…the dragons are not/at the edge of the map./They are inside us./And sometimes/they are more evil/than the most evil/we could imagine.” Are both quite an indictment and calling “the thing by name.” Reminds me of the Thich Nhat Hanh poem, Please Call Me by My True Names. It’s also reminiscent (to me), of WS Merwin’s, Thanks. It’s given me something to think about and ponder, besides work, on this workday. For that, I say, Kiitos.
thanks, Ed… at my advanced age my ear responds with the old rules, and apparently this singular/plural choice has changed. I learn something every day. and yes, rosemerry gives us all a lot to think about. Her mind sometimes boggles mine!
Glad to help, Carol!