askance

branches drawn
upon the rock
desert floor
like a family tree
for all mankind
and
i see the map of
dead tributaries
broken twigs
on the dusty ground
falling from
the mountains beyond
shiny
stiff paper
crumpled and balled
and then stretched flat
and hastily smoothed
landscape as
adolescent homework
rescued from the bin

I look askance
at my fellow travelers
leaning over me
to glance at America
through a plexiglass hole
in a metal tube
and distract me from
my metaphor