How Atlantis disappeared
Posted on | October 9, 2009 | No Comments
Under Socrates’ quiet direction
they took down the street signs and the house numbers.
One by one
the city councilmen dissolved
the ink on all the deeds and licenses,
while the mayor personally
destroyed the negatives
of every picture of the town.
Then, citizens, dutifully checking off a list,
erased the floor plan
of every house on every block.
In a single day
the city vanished
for its own protection.
From the far-off coastline
of Cadiz and Tangiers
the official Greek
telescopes recorded
a strange cirrus formation
of filaments and streamers and confetti,
as Socrates and the mayor’s secretary
fed the city archives
into the shredders and the Gibraltar surf
spread Atlantis over the sea.
*
Amy Scattergood is author of “The Grammar of Nails,” Creative Arts Books Company, 2001. She also edits the Squid Ink column at LA Weekly and occasionally posts her poetry at her personal blog www.amyscattergood.com.
Photo: London Guardian, October 9, 2009 “Flooding and landslides in the Philippines”
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