IN LINE

IN LINE

yes
there is a line

you told me
there is
but cannot see
it cannot find it

but
   there it is
clear as day
ghostly circle,
ghastly perpendicular
you wrote
in my book

had inscribed
         there with the equator
across
the landscape inside my head

as for the equator
here we are
crossing it
expecting Neptune
and fishy crew/oceanic
entourage to
board us, pirate-like,
at any moment

better that it be
Roman Neptune/Greek
Poseidon than
any
     horrific genocidal
King of Europe
hoping to
lubricate extraction
in African blood

mythical deity
imaginary line
          what could give
us better
cause for carnival?

and this line here
to our left
      as we sail past
coasts of gold
and ivory

one not
mythical at all, rather
conjured out of
an old
top hat
    back in ’84
but century of Bismarck,
century before Orwell
this line
    drawn in red ink
with ruler
and set square

and yes, hard to believe,
history has moved on but
has stuck to this picture

same old same old
equator, tropics, meridians,
stratifications, parallels

lines
    to fall in behind

keep us
in line
   as we march to our future