Mapping the Landscape

MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE

Laid out alone, the transparency 

of the region's elevations is approachable

enough, each range and summit distinct

and more than surmountable against

the familiar grain of tabletop. The rivers, too, 

can be traced and named, the food groups

of the native peoples’ distinguished  

with the ease of suggested slots on the cafeteria’s 

paper plates. During the test, though, 

when all of it is layered together, piled

on top of the late-afternoon hunger of our lives, 

the only answer many of us can provide

in the allotted time is that there’s a famine

somewhere in the region whose borders

we suddenly cannot seem to trace.