As with atlas, as with map
          within which space screams its geography
          in rust shackles;
 
                      the South Africa
                      the Iraq and such as
                      have their claws bemused
                      before altars in rose hewn ashes
                      before idols waxed in clarified butter
                      whose figures melt across and smear apart
                      every latitude
 
          Everywhere Like Such As
          education such as books pierced
          out of whale stomachs, literacy being
          the last great hunt of the last wooden ships;
 
                      at this corner of the ocean
                      the South Africa
                      the Iraq as such
                      conjure paper levithans from paper water
                      so this map’s corner will snarl
                      boat apart and ship asunder.
 
          Everywhere Like Such As
          a map, a atlas with its an,
          a galley
          of US Americans without maps,
          their shaved heads preened at
          by eagles or helicopters,
          rope ladders dangled and whistled without location
          upon a very dry sand
          the Iraq perhaps
          or perhaps
 
the everywhere.
 
 
 

 
Oakley Merideth is an MFA candidate in creative writing at The University of Colorado, Boulder. He teaches introductory creative writing courses, has been published previously in journals such as the Meadow, and is currently beginning work on a thesis that will seek to marry Duende with the language of theology and biology by way of lyric. He lives in Broomfield, Colorado.