Here You Are

Life is everywhere

On Earth and nowhere

Anywhere near Earth.

You can only live

Where lots of lives live,

So that’s the feature

Matters to your maps.

You should draw them all

With the mythical

Legend Here There Be

Monsters at their heart,

In each map’s center,

And then a nice cliff

All around the edge,

Past which you can’t live.

Planets are angels

For new medieval

Science fiction worlds—

You can project all

The madness you can

Dream into ideas

Of them and pack them

Densely as atoms

On pins into print.

But you can’t visit

Where angels exist.

You’re stuck with monsters

For now in this world,

This orbiting bead

Where lives live life’s needs.