Poetry for Unlimited Possibilities

Palimpsest (1997)

By Debra Marquart, Assistant Professor in English

You are here. ~~Notation on Concourse Maps

Let Y be your destination, the unnamed

place beyond the flickering fluorescence

of corridors, the terrazzo floors worn smooth

from the shoes of the dead. Let X be

your present location, the uncharted

space between pencil and chalk marks,

the keypad's incessant clatter. Listen,

you are here, a blip on a screen, transfixed

between home and away. It is possible

to create a life, doors opening to other

doors, the fresh breeze of tomorrow

rushing in to make the world new

each day. The canvas remembers

its maker, inside the hairline grooves

under the brushstrokes live the barest

traces--whispered thoughts, words

spoken, mundane as groceries, bills

and gasoline. The fingerprints

of the dead are everywhere, the tiny

whorls like plots to cities where one

could spend a life. Best to find

your own path, chart the roadmap

etched under your skin, sit down,

get to know the wanting of your feet.