16 January 2008 | Vol. 7, No. 4
The New Rand McNally World Atlas, C6 210
Like the capital of Tadzhikistan
I long to be a name I neither know
nor can pronounce, a smeared calligraphy
of membrane and breath, an outpost of bone.
Effective immediately,
like a Hoover bagless I hereby suck
all trace of me from earth—my ramshackle
prattle marooned in some distant
acquaintance's head, my memos re:
tapioca, the coughs I've left at rest
stops, my sock puppet arsenal…
When my thumb finds the world's index
the tracks lead back to where I began.
Dushanbe is the capital of Tadzhikistan.
About the author:
Dan Kaplan is the author of the forthcoming book Bill's Formal Complaint (The National Poetry Review Press, spring 2008) and the bilingual chapbook SKIN (Red Hydra Press, 2005). He lives in Portland, Oregon.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Dan Kaplan at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 7, No. 4, where "The New Rand McNally World Atlas, C6 210" ran on January 16, 2008. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
