east is a vector

east is a vector,
on the maps a stubborn serigraph
though two blocks east of here
the gyros are concrete
and the used furniture is nearly abandoned
and a recording studio is dressed like it's abandoned
for safekeeping.

an atlas is the compass-card collage and key.
I can adore a place name
before I meet the landscape.

at a backyard sale were biblical texts, ancient blazers,
and high school primers
for each subject three decades ago,
and an outdated road map, more valuable now.

in western thought, life is directions:
high school is a venue, university an avenue
marriage a journey, and the furniture store
is still two blocks east.

there's no love in a punch card

oyster once a week and morning twice a year,
short fragment of synesthesia and memory
like an old time card, a routine perforation
so my faith is in card stock, correction.

what a visceral road trip! the whole effort
reminds me of catching a fire with fishing line
sleep moves us both, I think, more than anything.

an outline

still above

violent spiral
hot damn hurricane over
satellite image