"The New Geography" by Michael Pontacoloni

Like saran wrap taut around the rimof a crater on the moon,I am not good for much but keeping inand keeping out. Though, quiet as a map,there isn’t muchthat needs keeping:All of my dust is in its place. All of the rocksare settled. I am contentto be passed through by light, or not,and I will for a moment keep level, poised and thin,when I welcome anotherof what made this crater to begin with.

Michael Pontacoloni's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Colorado Review, Harpur Palate, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. He lives in Connecticut, where he is the marketing director for a small software firm.