Lines on a Map
    Dancing Bear
Last night while I slept,
someone tattooed a map
on the sole of my foot.
I looked at my lover,
still sleeping -- had she?

I studied the chart,
traced its lines with my finger,
mouthed new words,
surprised by their sounds
in the cold morning air.
The symbols made no sense.
She said in her sleep,
walking has its own language.

Were the dark patterns a gift?
I felt a warm rush of confidence;
I could walk anywhere in the world.
My feet would always bring me home.



J.P. Dancing Bear is Editor-In-Chief of the DMQ Review and the host of “Out of Our Minds” a weekly poetry program on public radio station KKUP. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the following: Controlled Burn, Clackamas Literary Review, Potpourri, Borderlands, The Cape Rock and many others. In 2002, his chapbook, What Language, won the Slipstream Press Chapbook Contest. His latest chapbook, Blue Hand, was released in October 2002.


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

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