Mexico: A Sequence

Mexico

It begins with the Atlantic from above:
    Far-down glimmerings of white on blue -
Blue that seemed all sky, but is betrayed
    Into revealing itself as sea, faintest
Dawnings of a pattern on the waves, white points
    As sharp as stars suddenly created, fading out:
A wave-capped ocean is what we glimpse
    Until blue takes over once again
As we keep trying to put together
    This wide ambiguity of air and water,
Cosmic theatre we cannot act in.
    Canada lies below, an open map,
A lesson in geography for us scholars
    Who imagine the route to Mexico must lie
Due south, not through dogged unfinished winter.
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