Remembering Mason’s Stoup

The colony provides a certain sense of security.
We dreamed of boundaries
and of distance, of lines imparted on charts
scrawled
and, then often
reconfigured on what would eventually
become the maps on which we base various aspects of our
belief systems.

These are just lines, you see,
on paper
no less
or cloth
divined not by the hand of God mind you, but out of a vague mix of un-knowing perceived advantage
& the kind of greed inspired by what must have been thought of at the time as an infinite resource.

On one side of any given line
imagined, drawn, or published
capacities are anticipated
territories squeezed into acres are thought of in terms of
yield & bounty
investment & return
and the dangers of the yet undiscovered.

This is the point where potential is neutral, where there is as much to offer as there is to lose.

Habitation is a state of mind
as is ownership, and claims staked
in the name of…
for the queen of…
with God as our witness.

Imagine the audacity
or was it the will to live(?)
to step
as if naked into what could only be considered the unknown
the planet’s edge
the edge of what could be.

Imagine the dreams
the thoughts of prayers coming true
the wide-eyed wonder of a world brand new.

This is the frying pan.

This is the fire.