not slow, but making space for all to change…

“Movement in Kind” by Matthew Whitney

from “A Change of Maps” by Carolyne Wright

…

Above us, satellites measure the drift

of continents, dissolving vows

of bedrock, offshore shelves conceding

all their striations to the sea.

They track the moon’s loosening orbit,

explorer shuttle homing in

with batteries of data, micro-

chips shrinking our wildest dreams.

We roll up the old cartographies

coordinates overlaid with newer,

more transparent certainties

in the subatomic shadows’ glare.

Where now? we want to know of landscape –

houses and poplars and children the maps

and master planners have no idea of.

Our arrival will coincide with the true

colors of our going. We look

both ways for distances that shift

their bearings in our favor.