Two Poems

Mappa Mundi

Let this then be your diary and yearbook: make
     a frame of oak on which to fix
a sheet of finest vellum, stretched, like skin; draw

freehand, a not quite perfect circle; use black
     ink, some red, for the heart, let's say, for the Red
Sea; blue for rivers, veins; brown-egg shapes

for mountain ranges, and for faith; focus it all
     towards the centre, Christ, his bones stretched wide
in crucifixion, colour him too insistent red

to confute the non-believers. Puce, for wars, but let it not
     predominate. Have angels of the agony above
and devils snarling, scarlet, in the guts. Remember

that something within the frame of bones grows wiser
     as the bones grow heavier, the same that shifts
...