VIRGIN
GEOGRAPHY
and
the flat surfaces slip away
each
expedition was a failure,
everything
too new was all that
was
found. the stars beguiled
and
lost us, the snows washed
away
the sun, while shelves of
ice
slunk past you into the cool,
disinterested
sea—what you found,
you
found: nine armed starfish,
orange
as a discarded peel, a coin
as
leaden as the slumbering clouds,
the
wind spoke to your lungs, that
stole
each breath we made.
