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Secrets of a cartographer’s wife

 

The cartographer’s wife never told him

about her contributions to the maps.

Few tiny islands hidden in the middle

of an archipelago in the name of symmetry.

Some border line moved to more resemble

a face shape. The territory of England shortened

slightly, in a personal revenge.

 

One time, she renamed an insignificant river

in Bangladesh, after her lover. She pitied

the cartographer for being more furious

about the affair than about her intervention

in the world order. She knew that romances

were ephemeral, while naming things

changed them forever.

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