Analysis of Latitudes

Somewhere at sea level
(at the edge of a beach, a desert)
a sculptor who braces herself
on something other than the Earth
touches her scalpel to the surface
and lets it sink in,
no deeper than the thickness
of skin or paper,

and holds it firm,
her hand unwavering
as fences, highways, houses,
office buildings, monuments
are scraped away and fall
like a ribbon from the world,

and the Earth unravels
itself, sheds its outer skin,
spins.