explorer

let's go & find
the 8th continent--
i said
standing on the jungle
gym-- 
recess was meant
for explorers like
us-- 

this was
after mrs. petrie 
pinned the great
map of the earth
to the chalk board
of our 4th grade classroom--
she pointed to the vast
hunks of land--
north america 
south america
africa
europe
asia
austrailia 
antartica 

i asked her where
the islands go--
what continent they 
belong on 
& she said 
whichever
one is closest &
i didn't believe her--
i imagined them roaming
all on their own--

we learned about 
pangea & how god
broke us like
bread-- 
this is my body 
& in memory of
him-- in memory of
that initial break
men took to the seas
in wooden ships--

those vessels
who whined & moaned
like the torso of 
the dead oak tree
in the playground--

amerigo vespucci sitting
in my textbook wearing
his floppy beret--
ferdinand magellan
scraggly black bread--
leif erikson who
mrs. petrie said
was here before columbus

they stared into me--
planted flags
in me-- 
another claim
for portugal-- for spain--
for the holy empires--

i asked mrs. petrie 
why no one
had discovered these
huge fragments of
bread before 
a handful of oddly
dressed men

she said that no one
had been looking--
that everyone had been
too busy to be explorers--

i say this as the closest
thing i can offer 
to an apology--

this my body 
he said-- as another 
european flag
stuck in a rib cage--

the water beneath
the deck is 
red-- still red--
their eyes floating
on the surface of
my 4th grade text book
watching--

waiting for
the fingers of 
children to page 
past them--

the names of native
peoples were not 
part of our history book

not mayans or
aztecas or incas or
cherokees or lakota
or sioux or quechan

i ask you if you want
to go come with me
to
discover 
the 8th continent

from mulch-- from
oak tree shade-- from
hopscotch squares--
it can be our pangea--
break this body with me

there is no starting
over--

there is no apology
for this

i'm docking a wooden ship
to a land with no soil--

they told me to 
be an explorer--
to dive beneath the ocean 
& resurrect stones
we dropped 
down deep in 
the throats 
of the waves

let's break
this is my body