When I was a boy

I was not afraid

of reaching Lands End.

 

I lost myself exploring

the hardback Ordinance

Survey Book of Britain,

 

inspired by the colours,

contours, the way a flat

aerial view gained dimensions

 

in my unmapped imagination.

I drew maps of imagined lands.

The pencil could never catch

 

the dream, but I sketched

views around me: soft hills,

woods with hidden predators,

 

rivers wriggling towards estuaries,

a mouthy coastline and islands,

distant moors on a misty edge.

 

For hours, my unreal maps

and the real world around me

had no physical difference.

 

I hovered above both,

watching landscapes unfold,

hoping to always float above.