Do Not Open, 2003. [Photo by Keith Johnson]
We are a peaceful nation.
Our planes are filled with strawberries
headed for Japan.
The continent is on the move,
shaking its hips, grinding the perreo.
California will crash into Alaska
in fifty million years.
This is a science like any other,
how we bend ourselves
to the line of action, making
adjustments
in the angle of our commerce.
We are waiting for
the Arctic Ocean to open.
Our submarines travel quietly
beneath the ice.
Your support makes our work possible.
“Countrymen” appears in the chapbook A Guide to the Northwest Territory, published by Miel Books in September. The poem was first published in Bateau in 2009.
Landscape designers are pioneering new ways to regenerate urban waterfronts. Projects by Field Operations, Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha, and Stoss: Landscape Urbanism.
A crisis in architectural education is brewing, as tension rises between digitally driven formal experimentation and new mandates for social responsibility.
Los Angeles depends upon vast infrastructural systems that are breathtakingly complex, yet vulnerable to disruption, even disaster.
Comments are closed. If you would like to share your thoughts about this article, or anything else on Places Journal, visit our Facebook page or send us a message on Twitter.