Maps. John Freeman

       Note to the Reader

      Copper Canyon Press encourages you to calibrate your settings by using the line of characters below, which optimizes the line length and character size:

      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, pellentesa

      Please take the time to adjust the size of the text on your viewer so that the line of characters above appears on one line, if possible.

      When this text appears on one line on your device, the resulting settings will most accurately reproduce the layout of the text on the page and the line length intended by the author. Viewing the title at a higher than optimal text size or on a device too small to accommodate the lines in the text will cause the reading experience to be altered considerably; single lines of some poems will be displayed as multiple lines of text. If this occurs, the turn of the line will be marked with a shallow indent.

      Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems.

       This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible.

       For Nicole, who gave me the world

      Perhaps fantasy is what you fill up maps with rather than saying that they too contain the unknown.

      REBECCA SOLNIT, A FIELD GUIDE TO GETTING LOST

      The face of God you could hardly look at. But that day it drizzled, so I could look all I wanted. I saw the homelier side. The cracked whitewash and swallows nesting in the busted end of eaves. I saw the boards sawed the size of broken windowpanes and the fruit trees, stripped. Only the tough wild rhubarb flourished. Goldenrod rubbed up their walls. It was a poor convent. I didn’t see that then, but I know that now. Compared to others it was humble, ragtag, out in the middle of no place. It was the end of the world to some. Where the maps stopped.

      LOUISE ERDRICH, LOVE MEDICINE

      Contents

       Title Page

       Note to Reader

       Dedication

       ONE

       Rocklin

       Beirut

       Legend

       The Unknowing

       Sarajevo (Summer 2016)

       Swap Meet

       Bomb Shelters of the Oligarchs

       Maps

       Of Rockets

       The Boy under the Car

       The Blinding

       Summer 1995

       Barbers

       Coins

       You Are Here

       The Heat

       TWO

       Still Life

       Mail

       On Generosity

       Reherseal

       Allowances

       The Money

       The Last

       Tattoo

       Via

       Repeat

       Blackout

       Tautology

       Oslo

       Ides

       Saudade

       THREE

       English Hours, Three Pieces of Advice

       Night Bus to Richmond

       On Love

       Wimbledon

       Lacking Measures

       Maddy

       28th Street

       Childhood