Busted Compass
by
Carrie Meadows
Carrie Meadows is the author of the poetry collection Speak, My Tongue (Calypso Editions, 2017) and the chapbook Slingshot, Catapult (Semiperfect Press, 2018). Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace, The Common: Dispatches, and other publications.
from Busted Compass
Atlas has disintegrated
or Comet C/2019 Y4, a metaphor for chronic pain
Atlas, book of maps, charts, illustrations: compass. Atlas, mountain range,
stone pillar: needle. Atlas, vertebra holding my head, where my nerves pulse
spastic, where my muscles spark, where my electricity, my-body-made jolts
ripple my skin like eels: magnet. Atlas, busted compass, busted comet, busted
backbone, busted blaze of green light: lost.
