Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • Matthew Serback, "How to Make a Boulder"
    • Kathryn Holzman, "Eating Meat"
    • Pavle Radonic, "The Laboratory"
    • Kaitlyn Burd, "Nature with You in It"
    • Katie Young Foster, "Promotion"
    • William Cordeiro, "Selections from Whispering Gallery"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
    • On Experimental Fiction
  • Nonfiction
    • Scott Wordsman reviews Petter Lindgren
    • Alexander Clark, "Postdiluvian"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
    • Lori Hawks, "The Fix"
  • Art
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    • Yuji Hiratsuka, "Beet Meets Meat"
    • Fabio Sassi, "Rusted Link"
    • Kasey Ramirez, "Edifice"
  • Archives
    • 2017 >
      • Fiction 2017 >
        • Alexandra Renwick, "The Life of an Artifact in Duodecadal Glances"
        • Lizzi Wolf, "My Brother's Therapist"
      • Poetry 2017 >
        • Douglas Piccinnini
        • Matthew McBride
        • Jim Daniels
        • Sally Ashton
        • Raymond Farr
      • Nonfiction 2017 >
        • Charlie Moses, "Dear Friend"
        • Pamela Woolford, "This Is What Happened"
        • Jennifer Martelli, "Phobiacompendia"
    • 2016 >
      • Fiction 2016 >
        • Loie Merritt, "The Edge of the Sea is a Strange and Beautiful Place"
        • Mitchell Grabois, "i"
        • Kelle Groom, "25 Reasons to Attend the Gala"
        • Mike Shepley, "Killing Symbols"
        • Jody Azzouni, "Owning Things"
        • Dan Gutstein, "Like Airplanes and Stars"
        • Kate Imbach, "Diamondland"
      • Poetry 2016 >
        • Jeff Alessandrelli
        • Daniel Coudriet
        • Peter Leight
        • John Wells
        • Jenna Cardinale
        • Isabelle Shepherd
        • Michael Robins
        • Will Walker
        • Bridget Sprouls
        • Allan Johnston
        • Hugh Behm-Steinberg
        • Caroline Knox
        • David Dodd Lee
        • John Deming
        • David McLoghlin
    • 2015 >
      • Poetry 2015 >
        • Adam Clay
        • Kyle Hemmings
        • Matthew Henriksen
        • Megan Kaminski
        • Emily Kendal Frey
        • Noelle Kocot
        • Katy Lederer
        • John Lowther
        • Nathaniel Sverloff
        • Franz Werfel -- James Reidel
      • Fiction 2015 >
        • Erin Bedford, "Riesenrad"
        • James Braziel, "Jick's Chevrolet"
        • James Braziel, "Vittate"
        • Adrian Class, "Or Flights"
        • Erica L. Kaufman, "It Buried Us"
        • Nolan Liebert, "Gravity of Hearts"
        • Heather Noland, "Cosmic Slump"
        • Tom Whalen, "In the Cathedral"
      • Nonfiction 2015 >
        • Rebecca Cook, "What the Hammer Said When the Hammer Hit the Girl"
        • Margot Kelley, "Companion Species"
    • Fall 2014 >
      • Poetry Fall 2014 >
        • Stephanie Anderson
        • John Buckley and Martin Ott
        • Vanessa Couto Johnson
        • John Estes
        • Anne Gorrick
        • Henry Israeli
        • Keegan Lester
        • John Loughlin
        • Douglas Luman
        • Danielle Mitchell
        • Alexandria Peary
        • Marcus Slease
        • Georg Trakl / James Reidel
      • Fiction Fall 2014 >
        • Matt Rowan, "Dog's Best Friend"
        • Kelli Anne Noftle, "Before She Was Olive"
        • Chris Okum, "Ratatat"
        • Jon Fried, "Cashing In"
        • Lisa C. Taylor, "Visible Wounds"
        • Sarah Kahn, "Break"
        • Rebekah Morton, "Big Sis"
      • Nonfiction Fall 2014 >
        • Stephen Benz, "Night Then Morning: Elko, Nevada"
        • Joseph C. Jiuliani, "Of Stealing and of Being Stolen"
        • Lindsay Chudzik, "Jailface"
        • Robert D. Vivian, "Just After Rain"
    • Spring 2014 >
      • Poetry Spring 2014 >
        • Simeon Berry
        • Molly Brodak
        • Wyn Cooper
        • Brian Foley
        • Tim Kahl
        • Caroline Knox
        • Rob MacDonald
        • Benjamin Paloff
      • Fiction Spring 2014 >
        • Gareth David Anderson, "Cupcake"
        • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
        • Patrick Cole, "Pick-up Lines"
        • Joshua Graber, "This Fine Experience"
        • Lola Grace, "Natural Birth"
        • Robert E. Tanner, "Non-Disclosure Disagreement"
      • Art Spring 2014
    • 2012 & 2013
  • Pedagogy
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Will Walker


​CRACKERS
 
Somewhere among the Olmec heads
that weigh ten tons and the axes smooth as water
 
and the little masks with faces you want to talk to,
if only you could travel—briefly, with a guaranteed
 
uneventful germ-free return––across the millennia
to admire the chiseled features and perfect
 
enameled teeth of the living models,
you no longer have to wonder what the subjects
 
would say to you, because they begin talking,
or mouthing murmurs from their pedestals
 
and plastic cases, lit from above or below
for maximum dramatic effect. Crackers, they say,
 
through their eyes, in perfect English, the words
emerging from their frozen features.
 
––That’s what we want. Crackers, the gluten-free jobs
with sesame seeds. A slice of cheese. Even a lowly
 
tortilla would do. And a cup of that fermented juice
whose formula has been lost to the jungle.
 
Crackers, they all say, lighting the shadows that hover.
The voices have spoken. I am their emissary.


​
EGGS
 
Out walking the dogs, I notice what they’re thinking
clear as day. In their modest thought balloons
 
there hovers an egg––hardboiled and peeled,
glistening and impervious, a glowing white translucence,
 
such indescribable integrity, a thing the same
in any language, a protein pill like the watery sun
 
in today’s overcast, shining like a blind eye.
Or like the egg I eat at breakfast––no culinary sensation,
 
just a hedge against high blood sugar.
The dogs carry the eggs so freely––one to each thought balloon,
 
a pair of eggs on leash. The eggs shine whitely
on each blade of grass that’s sniffed, endorsing
 
the invisible scent of the world, the passage
of other dogs with their perfect unthought eggs
 
like serene bubbles on a slow-moving stream,
reflecting everything without knowing it, gliding
 
on the surface that is the only dimension
they will ever know, or need.

Copyright © 2016 Map Literary and Will Walker

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Will Walker lives in San Francisco with his wife. He is a former editor of the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. His collection of poems, Wednesday after Lunch, is available on Amazon.
published by
The Department of English
College of Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright  © 2012-2017 Map Literary
Map Literary

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