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
poems 2 die for 