Magellan's Log Copyright © 2001 Texas Chapbook Press
www.texaschapbookpress.com

Languages are like landscapes:

some hilly, some mountainous, some flat,

some desert, some forest, some jungle,

some a combination of all,

each with different vistas, near and far,

rich (or poor) in flora and fauna.

Each of us is born into one such landscape.

Its views and qualities shape our own,

even as we perhaps visit and even live in

others. All—whether the Vale of Kashmir

or the Patagonian plain or the Gobi—imprint

a common view, one shared reality

when at night we look

up.