Flash Map
by Ronald Geigle
Before opioids,Before on-ramps,Before plate tectonics,Before Jack Kerouac,Before ancient Greece,There was land, anchored land, land connected.The wind could have been on speed,but words weren’t there to describe it.The rain hadn’t yet thought-up Noah.The sun started it all, heating dirt and rock and clouds over the ocean—the ocean way before James Joyce would make it sound like thewater echoes in your ears.But it all broke: like a Big Bang,slower, sure,on earth.Now we’ve got a hint, just a hint, left.Only Polaroid flashes.Sometimes when I’m thinking of Kerouac on an on-ramp,I see them.
Published in The Poet
Winter, 2022