Spinning the Globe

by Sean Carlton, Luke Brannon, Michael Dylan Welch, Beki Reese Van Buren, Trixie Lynn, and Billie Dee

First published in Uncharted Territory, the 2024 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology, Haiku Northwest Press, 2025, page 38. Originally written 25 October 2024, in the Pines Building at the Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, Washington, to fit the weekend’s theme of maps. Trixie Lynn is a fictitious name, suggested by Billie for a verse we wrote together because we had only five participants but needed a sixth to fit the rengay pattern.

old map . . .

searching for a country

yet to exist Sean

North recharted

cloudless night Luke

on the seabed

after the fire

captain’s compass Michael

spin of the globe—

my finger lands on

Tasmania Beki

the GPS

still recalculating Trixie

dead reckoning

our course leads

to the dragon’s maw Billie