The roadmap on fingertips

I know what cities look like to birds
Flying higher than imagination.
Little somethings exploring
The apogee and perigee of the notion
Of a circular or really not so circular
Perimeter linked to parallel stretches
Laid out like thoughtful contours
With occasional matches
To excavation sites,
Step-farmed spurs and ridges,
Or erratically elliptical doodles
On toddler friendly fridges.

Every city roadmap looks familiar
Yet converses with different nouns
And a genetically different grammar…
Singular smiles, distinctive frowns!
Migrating birds scan city biometrics
To know where they are
Or when their journey ends
Or how far really is far.
These palmer flexion creases of a city
Exist beyond the power of a hunch,
Are there even when we see them not
And are born with a futuristic punch!

We carry our own roadmap on us
An entire city of mind-trips
Both innate and learned
All on our fingertips.

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Based on the prompt: A place on the body (Ampat Koshy)
#TSLNaPoWriMo poetry writing challenge for April 2021

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Arvind Passey
Written on 01 April 2021