Intimate Cartography
Once you were in
side of me
mourning
love
tahiti
the trenchant mouth
extremis
line
your head fairbanks alaska
the window
bed
another foreign country
There you were
existing
soignée
in the maldives
adrift
like earthsmoke
beneath a tree
all
ready
gone
mid-swan song
my lover
a refugee
You left
montana
the country
behind all your belongings
pants
lined with banknotes
a son
in time
your father’s watch
dj’s gun
a moonlit chasm
memories
this map
Now you are out
side of me
west
of dodge
standing
hitching a ride
in the sun
past five
on a highway
of your mind
manned
to drive
past california
Camille Carter (she/her) is an American poet and scholar. She lives and teaches in New York, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in Comparative Literature. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2025, Five Points, New American Writing, POETRY Magazine, Passages North, and Raritan. At present, she is the Literary Fellow In-Residence at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
Recommended
A Partial Accounting
Advanced Beekeeper
Lullaby