It’s So Incredibly Brave to Be a World Map,
knowing the answer to the question Whose
country is this anyway? is subject to change,
knowing that as soon as someone punctures
the four corners of your colorful cartograph
with thumbtacks and affixes you to some
classroom wall, the lines depicting borders
are apt to shimmer like road lines in heat,
a mirage of constancy, knowing that,
at any given moment, another Czech Republic
might decide to rebrand itself as Czechia,
knowing that almost as soon as your ink
has dried, you will become obsolete.
*
Yvonne Zipter is the author of the poetry collections Kissing the Long Face of the Greyhound, The Patience of Metal (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist), and Like Some Bookie God. Her poems have appeared in numerous periodicals over the years, including Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, and Bellingham Review, as well as in several anthologies. Her published poems are currently being sold individually in Chicago in two repurposed toy-vending machines, the proceeds of which are donated to the nonprofit arts organization Arts Alive Chicago. She is also the author of the nonfiction books Diamonds Are a Dyke’s Best Friend and Ransacking the Closet and the Russian historical novel Infraction.
