last place on earth

we set about writing
an experimental history
for the town in which we were born.

we collected imaginary archives
and transparent maps,

re-zoning memories
as if they were

checkpoints.

we placed Geiger meters
at the four corners of the city
and listened for the sound of

occupations,
desertions
and revolutions

but heard nothing.

we painstakingly transcribed
the testimonials of lunatics,
and used these stories as
the crux of our fluid chronology

a timeline
forming somewhere
at the back of our minds,

a Rosetta stone
remininding us:

the map will have to be
re-written

and we will be the ones
to write it.