Mary brought me the imperial city.
Her plate of shells
gathered from the shore.
I had no key to its gates,
I saw the quintessential point
of all centers.
Wave after wave of horizons.
Kelp, ice and mineral
in a city of life.
Hugeness in the power of atoms.
A riptide tearing at my heart.
The capital of the world
placed before me
by one of its citizens.
The book The House of the World has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is now available on Amazon.