Map-Maker

After Fenwick

.As I was saying-is so bush work stay. Especially on a job like this. Just bide your time. Another couple morning, the survey done, you pack your bag and home, Canje cobwebs left behind . Wilson Harris

In a tinderbox frame, the light leaks
through gaps in the rotting panels
and salt air from the sea and brackish river
softens the collected folders until they green and bleed
into the wood, returning to the roaches,
to the smell of worms, to the earth, to the tick of parasites.
An old man with glassed eyes and skin
like the insides of a tangerine peel, guides me
through the shelves to the dank corner smelling
of jungle funk so thick it lingers like the touch
of dew on the skin long after the sun.